UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi there,

I have a filestore that is just two levels:

dir/
file1
file2
file3
...
subdir1/
file4
file5
file6
subdir2/
file7
file8
file9
...

I am looking for acommand or scrip that will flatteb this tree and copy all the files into a single directory:

newdir/
file1
file2
file3
file4
file5
file6
file7
file8
file9

Could anybody please help? Thanks.

A Script?

Code:

man mkdir
man mv
man rm

?????

For the steps you listed, you don't need a script, usually. Just use the commands I've listed to create the dir, mv the files from the old dirs and remove the then empty dirs. Or is there something more behind it?

No that's fine, thanks. Except that there are aabout 250 subdirectories and about 3500 files in total. I could do the above but it would take some time. I was knd of thinking there may be a way to automate it.

Cheers,

Code:

find /tedirabove -type f -exec mv {} /newdir \;

For deleting the then empty directories you can use the same above, changing f vs d for directories and mv against rm -r.

Maybe try it 1st with -print instead of -exec if you get the files you want to move.

Remember, that if there are different files with the same name, they will be overwritten in /newdir of course.

Many, MANY thanks!
L