UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello. I am working on creating a script to recursively run on my media collection. The goal is to recreate the folder structure, but with slight changes in the folder names based on my rules. The folders will also include the .jpg & .mkv files, renamed according to a similar set of rules.

Normally I would ask a portion of the script and piece the entire script together with my limited knowledge, however in this case I don't think that will come up with a very streamlined script at all. So, I'm going to explain my goal, and hope someone is willing to help me out!!

Here is my current directory structure:

Code:

/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Folder.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001 - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345.mkv
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001 - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345.mkv_sheet.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Folder.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/Example Title 2 - 2000 - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345.mkv
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/Example Title 2 - 2000 - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345.mkv_sheet.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/folder.jpg

Here is my desired directory structure using hardlinks to reference the .mkv & .jpg files:

Code:

/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Folder.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001.mkv
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001.mkv_sheet.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Folder.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/Example Title 2 - 2000.mkv
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/Example Title 2 - 2000.mkv_sheet.jpg
/cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/{Genre}/Example Title 2 - 2000/folder.jpg

So the goal is fairly straightforward - I want to recreate the directory structure of /cygwindrive/c/Media/ into /cygwindrive/c/Mediahardlinks/. Then I want to create hardlinks for all the .jpg & .mkv files in those directories, however I want to remove the " - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345" string within the .mkv & .mkv_sheet.jpg files in the hardlinks names. It should be noted that this text always appears after the 4 digit Year text in the filenames, will never have spaces, and is always the exact same within any given folder (since the .jpg file references the .mkv file). Also, the directory structure of /cygwindrive/c/Media/ includes other files in addition to the .jpg & .mkv files, however I am only interested in making the hardlinks to those types of files.

I would be extremely grateful is anyone would be willing to take the time to help me out with this script. Thanks in advance for the help!

You seem to be in Cygwin. Do symlinks even work there? That's not the same thing as a .lnk, you know.

Yeah, I've already confirmed they work in my setup. I tested using a simple ln command with no flags, and it works perfectly. I think the reason it works is because my end-device is linux-based.

Here's an example ln command I used when testing:

Code:

ln "/cygwindrive/c/Media/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001 - ExtraTextNoSpaces12345.mkv" "/cygwindrive/c/MediaHardlinks/{Genre}/+Example Title 1/Example Title 1 - 2001/Example Title 1 - 2001.mkv"

That isn't a symlink either, that's a hardlink. ln -s creates symlinks.

Yeah, you are absolutely correct, my mistake. I've updated my posts accordingly changing symlinks to hardlinks.

I guess this is why I'm posting in the newbies area