UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi:

I have a large number of image files that are named sequentially (00001.jpg, 00002.jpg, 00003.jpg, etc.) on my Macbook that I want to rename and move to a new subfolder structure. I'm creating a spreadsheet with a long list of mv commands, which is really easy to set up.

The problem I'm having is that the mv command apparently won't create the subfolders on the fly, so it looks like I'll be forced to create the folders using separate commands, unless there's a way to script this out or modify the mv command to make this work.

My unix scripting skills are severely lacking - can someone help me out?

Thanks in advance.

Assuming you have your filenames in FILELIST and you in the right directory:

Code:

dir_to_move=YOURDIR_TO_MOVE
while read f; do
  dest="$dir_to_move"/`dirname "$f"`
  echo mkdir -p "$dest"
  echo mv "$f" "$dest"
done <FILELIST

If you see this command/script prints the right target on the terminal, remove echo and move your files.

I think I blew the request a bit... I forgot - the sequential files are sorted into coded directories - ie: SDG0001\00001.JPG, SDG0001\00002.JPG, SDG0002\00003.JPG, etc.

I see what you're getting at - would it be possible to use a comma or tab separated input file with source and destination path/filenames, as the following, which is tab-delimited:

/Users/Steve/Desktop/Source/SDG0001/00001.JPG /Users/Steve/Desktop/Dest/1979/Photo1.JPG
/Users/Steve/Desktop/Source/SDG0001/00002.JPG /Users/Steve/Desktop/Dest/1982/Photo1.JPG
/Users/Steve/Desktop/Source/SDG0002/00003.JPG /Users/Steve/Desktop/Dest/1982/Photo2.JPG

You can:
1. cp -r all your files
2. mv directories according your list.
3. mv files in this directories according your algorithm.
This is easy with a shell script but I'm too lazy to write it. I believe somebody helps you.