UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello there, I'm a total noob to shell scripting.

What I want to do is compare the contents of Folder A and Folder B, and copy any files in Folder A that do not exist in Folder B over to Folder B.

I have gotten so far as:

diff -rq folderA folderB

which returns the names of the files, but I don't know how to do the second part of the operation.

Thanks very much, your help is greatly appreciated.

Hi, have You considered using rsync? It would be as easy as

Code:

rsync -av folderA/ folderB

or if You dont have it, use

Code:

cp -rvu folderA/* folderB

There could be situations where they don't work for You but You can try and start with it, maybe it helps?

/Lakris

Thank you Lakris! rsync did the trick.

Do you know, if the filenames of the files were different in folder A vs folder B, but the content was the same, do they get copied over anyway?

Hi again,
It's the filename that determines the first difference. If the filenames differ they are different files, no matter if the content is the same. So if it doesn't exist in the destination directory, it will be copied.

Best regards,
Lakris