UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Thanks Scrutinizer and Don for the solutions. Also i am curious for each of these command ie mv , rm and cp can i use the FIND equivalent like this :

Code:

find  Inputpath -name '.pdf' -exec mv -f {} Outputpath   \;

Will this avoid the Large Number of files error too?

Thanks again.

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags next time for your code and data.

Almost. You need -name '*.pdf'; not -name '.pdf'. If you use:

Code:

find  Inputpath -name '*.pdf' -exec mv -f {} Outputpath +

(note the + instead of the \;), find will pass multiple file operands to each invocation of mv, which will reduce overhead and make it run faster.

Note also that if there are any subdirectories in Inputpath that contain PDF files, you'll need to recreate the directory structure under Outputpath before moving file PDF files themselves.

Thanks Don,
I can safely rewrite all the Unix Commands in my initial post using the FIND Command as follows to avoid the Large number of files error:

Code:

1) find  Inputpath -name '*.pdf' -exec mv -f {} Outputpath +

2 ) find  Inputpath -name '*.pdf' -exec cp  {}  Outputpath +

3) find Inputpath -name  '*.[Pp][Dd][Ff]' 

4) find Inputpath/* -exec  rm -rf  {}  +

In the 4th commnd above my aim is to delete all subdirectories and files within the Inputpath Directory but not delete the Inputpath directory itself.

Am I correct on all the above?

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags next time for your code and data.

No. #3 prints a lit of PDF files in Inputpath and its subdirectories when with mixed case spellings of PDF (PDF, PDf, PdF, Pdf, pDF, pDf, pdF, and pdf); the cp and mv in #1 and #2 will only act on PDF files ending in all lowercase letters (pdf). You need to decide whether you need case insensitive spellings of PDF and choose the appropriate pattern consistently based on your data.

It seems strange to me that you want to print the list of files you're working on after you have done #1 or #2.

This whole thread was started because you already know that #4 won't work; expanding Inputpath/* will create an argument list to long for the exec family of system calls to work. If there are no files in and under Inputpath other than PDF files, the easiest thing to do would be:

Code:

rm -rf Inputpath
mkdir Inputpath

Hi Don when i use the Below i get the following Error:

Code:

find Inputpath -name '*.pdf' -exec mv -f {} Outputpath  + 

find: 0652-018 An expression term lacks a required parameter

Any reason why this is so?

Yes. Sorry. You can only use "+" as the -exec primary terminator when the {} is the last argument being passed to the command to be executed. Doing this with find will require you to mv one file at a time (using \; instead of +) unless you create an intermediate script and exec it.

May I advise against executing a script within a find command? This would include, for every file found, creating a shell to run the script, implying a huge overhead, esp. in this case with "Large Number of Files". Why not collect all filenames in a working file and then work on that?