Copy all files in a directory with a particular string in the filename to different directory in Bash

Question

For example, a directory could contain the files

12_foo9.dat
34foo32.txt
24foobar.png
997_bar.txt

and I would like to copy the files with 'foo' in the file names to a separate directory so that it would contain those first three files but not the fourth.

I've looked around but haven't figured out a way to do this. The directory has a very large number of files, but only 1% or so that I need to copy.

Thanks

Solution 1

$ mkdir NEWDIR

$ touch foo_file file_foo file_foo_file

$ ls
NEWDIR      file_foo    file_foo_file   foo_file

$ cp -v *foo NEWDIR/
file_foo -> NEWDIR/file_foo

$ cp -v foo* NEWDIR/
foo_file -> NEWDIR/foo_file

$ cp -v *foo* NEWDIR/
file_foo -> NEWDIR/file_foo
file_foo_file -> NEWDIR/file_foo_file
foo_file -> NEWDIR/foo_file

$ ls NEWDIR/
file_foo    file_foo_file   foo_file

Solution 2

Try this statement: cp *foo* /newdir

Solution 3

cp *foo* /path/to/separate_directory

If you want to validate the files that will be included first, the use:

ls *foo*

This will confirm the files to be matched, then you can re-use the same pattern with the cp command to execute the copy.

Solution 4

If you are really concerned about the number of files (e.g. running in the millions) you could use:

find . -type f -depth 1 -name "*foo*" -exec cp {} /otherdir \; -print

This doesn't use shell expansion, so you will not try to run a command with a million arguments. The -print gives you some indication of progress and can be left out. To simply list the files that are to be copied:

find . -type f -depth 1 -name "*foo*"

View more solutions

Comments

[DreadPirateShawn]

What benefit does the "echo" provide? It doesn't clarify which files are going to be included. If you want that, you'd want "ls foo" to confirm the files that will be matched, then "cp foo /target" to copy the same. Actually, I think I'll add that suggestion to my answer...

[johnsyweb]

@DreadPirateShawn: Thanks for the comment. I've updated my answer (tested with Bash v4.2.37).

[Admin]

Thanks, that's so simple, sorry for asking something so obvious!

[dough]

NP - I don't want to hustle for rep but feel free to accept this answer :-)

[aerin]

what does -v do?

[Matt]

-v is the "verbose" flag, causing it to output exactly which files are being moved