Copying contents of current directory to a subdirectory

Question

How can I use the Linux terminal to copy everything in current directory to a subdirectory?

Solution 1

If you want to copy the contents of the folder recursively (will throw 1 error, alternatives below):

cp -r * sub/

A little more hacky, but works on non-empty subdirectories:

TARGETDIR='targetdir here';cp -r `find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name "$TARGETDIR"` "$TARGETDIR"

Another oneliner:

TARGETDIR='targetdir here';for file in *;do test "$file" != "$TARGETDIR" && cp "$file" "$TARGETDIR/";done

Or recursive:

TARGETDIR='z';for file in *;do test "$file" != "$TARGETDIR" && cp -r "$file" "$TARGETDIR/";done

Solution 2

Supposing target is the name of the target subdirectory, if your shell is bash:

shopt -s extglob
cp -r !(target) target/

In ksh, you can directly do cp -r !(target) target/.

In zsh, you can do setopt ksh_glob then cp -r !(target) target/. Another possibility is setopt extended_glob then cp -r ^target target/.

Solution 3

I would suggest moving the target directory outside the source directory and then put it back again; mv is free (if you are careful not to move to a different filesystem), unless you are expecting other processes to interfere/be interfered.

Most solutions posted above won't work if there are spaces in filenames. I would suggest using variants of find -print0 | xargs -0, or find -exec, etc.

Comments

[Craig]

Do you mean copy or move?

[Admin]

this does not take care of non-empty directories

[karlphillip]

I just tested, and it worked.

[Admin]

this does not work in case sub/ is not empty -> sub will copied into sub again, unless that is what @Oguz wanted.

[Admin]

you need to copy the non-empty directories recursively like @Lekensteyn suggested.

[Lekensteyn]

Ok I'm finally satisfied with the find code :D

[Dennis Williamson]

Fails for filenames that include spaces.

[Dennis Williamson]

No need for ls: for file in *. No need for backticks - use $(). No need for backticks (or $()) around the cp command (that will produce an error message).

[Dennis Williamson]

Your second command fails for filenames that include spaces. Use xargs or -exec. No need for grep - use ! -name "$TARGETDIR" or similar. You have unmatched quotes around $file. I don't think a recursive cp will work the way you intend in any but your first command.

[Lekensteyn]

Wohaa, missed a quote in the last codes. Good comment Dennis, I never thought of using -name in this case :)

[Jimmy Obonyo Abor]

will throw error cp: cannot copy a directory, 'a', into itself, 'a/a'