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find mv and create directory structure

 
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# 1  
Old 02-06-2011
find mv and create directory structure
Hi there, I'm trying to pull all my flacs out of my Music collection. I can do it with following command
Code:
find b/ -name *.flac -exec mv {} flac/ \;

which works great except it moves all the flac files to the flac folder. I want it to recreate the original folder the flacs were found in and mv the files there. essentially recreate directory structure but only folders with flac files. Can anyone help please?
# 2  
Old 02-07-2011
So you want to move all your files
Code:
/whatever/b/*.flac

to
Code:
/whatever/newdir/b/*.flac

?
just
Code:
mkdir -p /whatever/newdir
cp -pr /whatever/b /whatever/newdir

# 3  
Old 02-07-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by ctsgnb
So you want to move all your files
Code:
/whatever/b/*.flac

to
Code:
/whatever/newdir/b/*.flac

?
just
Code:
mkdir -p /whatever/newdir
cp -pr /whatever/b /whatever/newdir

Hi thanks for the reply. That's not exactly what I'm after. I have a directory "b/" with flac, mp3 and wma files in sub folders say:
Code:
b/artist1/foo.mp3
              b/artist2/foo.wma
              b/artist3/foo.flac

I want to search for folders containing flac files in "b/" and mv the directory containing the flac files to my new folder "flac/". tbh I don't think i explained it very well the first time Smilie
# 4  
Old 02-07-2011
Because there is much variation in unix and Linux commands, please post:
Operating System and version.
What Shell you use.

The generic answer to this question is to use "find" piped to "cpio -p" with more local parameters. See "man find" AND "man cpio".
The normal method is to copy the tree to the target, verify the copy, then delete the source files.
# 5  
Old 02-08-2011
I am sure there may be some more elegant way to do it but something like this should do the job
Code:
ksh
cd b/
find ./ -type f -name "*.flac" | while read a
do  
     b=${a#??}
     mkdir -p ./flac/${b%/*}
     mv "$a" ./flac/"$b" && rm "$a"
done

Last edited by ctsgnb; 02-08-2011 at 04:59 AM..
# 6  
Old 02-08-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by methyl
Because there is much variation in unix and Linux commands, please post:
Operating System and version.
What Shell you use.

The generic answer to this question is to use "find" piped to "cpio -p" with more local parameters. See "man find" AND "man cpio".
The normal method is to copy the tree to the target, verify the copy, then delete the source files.
The system I'm using is a Qnap nas so i'm not exactly sure of the exact os. I can also perform any command needed from an Ubuntu 10.10 server which has the folders mounted

---------- Post updated at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous update was at 09:17 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by ctsgnb
I am sure there may be some more elegant way to do it but something like this should do the job
Code:
ksh
cd b/
find ./ -type f -name "*.flac" | while read a
do  
     b=${a#??}
     mkdir -p ./flac/${b%/*}
     mv "$a" ./flac/"$b" && rm "$a"
done

Hi thanks for the help. When i try this in Ubuntu server 10.10:
Code:
 
cd b/
find ./ -type f -name "*.mp3" | while read a
 do 
b=${a#??}
mkdir -p ./mp3/${b%/*}
mv "$a" ./mp3/"$b" && rm "$a"
done

i get a "mv: unable to rename no such file or directory" error for each file piped from find. Also after i run the above the directory i was working in has new empty folders for each word in any of the original directories titles. e.g if i had a folder
Code:
b/An Album By An Artist

i end up with the following folders
Code:
b/An/
b/Albun/
b/By/
b/An/
b/Artist/
b/An Album By An Artist
b/mp3/

Maybe this is because there is spaces in the directory names?
# 7  
Old 02-08-2011
I didn't gleam much from the manufacturers website except that you are probably using some sort of SAN.
QNAP Systems, Inc. - Quality Network Appliance Provider

Though I could come unstuck with syntax on whatever Operating System is at your command prompt, I feel that the combination of "find" and "cpio" is the correct direction:

Quote:
find b/ -name *.flac -exec mv {} flac/ \;
Idea for replacement code which keeps the directory tree and works with directory and file names containing space characters.
Code:
cd /start_point
find b/ -name '*.flac' -print | cpio -pdumv flac/

This is a copy operation. When successful, then consider deleting the original files.
 
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