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Copy selected files in Linux


This command below will display files with time stamp of Nov 1.

 dir | grep "Nov 1"

Output of the command cannot be used as input of the cp or copy command.

Output of the command includes details such as file permissions, file owner, file size and other details.

Input parameters of cp or copy should only include specific filenames.

If the output of the dir and grep command will be used as input parameters or pipe to cp command.

An error message will be displayed like:
cp: invalid option -- 'w'

Try `cp --help' for more information.

Error message simply tells that cp command is not able to process input parameters.

To automate copying from the output of dir and grep, the output has to be redirected to a file.

Run the command below and redirect the output to a file.

  dir | grep "Nov 1" > myfile.txt

Filename extension doesn't matter in Linux but for readability purposes it’s good to include file names.

The output of the command will not be echoed to the screen but will be written on myfile.txt.

To automate copying, of the selected files a script is needed.

Script will do these steps below:

1. Read the file line by line.
2. Cut the line and just take the file name
3. Copy the file to the destination

Here's the bash script below to automate file copying of selected files:


===========================

#!/bin/bash

filename="myfile.txt"


while read line


do


    name=$line


    cutname=$line
    #echi "$name" will display the line on myfile.txt

    #echo "$name"


    fcutname=${cutname:45:12}    
    #echo "$fcutname" will display the concatenated string

    #echo "$fcutname"

   

    xpath="/home/mysql/logs/"

    #combine the path and the filename


    finalpath=$xpath$fcutname

    #echo "$finalpath"

   

    cp $finalpath "/home/backupUser/backupFolder/logsbackup"





done < "$filename"
===========================

In bash script, to cut the string.

Specify the first position to start string concatenation.

Then the second number tells bash it’s the number of characters that will be cut; starting from the first position.

    fcutname=${cutname:45:12}   

fcutname variable, first position at column 45 and cut up to 12 characters starting at column 45.

Like example below:
-rw------- 1 user fort     9185 Nov 1  2014 0000c22z.eml

Column 45 is before the first zero character in 0000c22z.eml.

12 is the length or the number of characters for 0000d22d.eml

Basically, it will just get or cut the file name as input for the copy command.

Remove the comment in the echo command to check how the cut string works in Linux bash.


That's it..Hope it helps to get started on how to automate task in Linux.

Linux Android App cheat sheet:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LinuxMobileKit
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