Copying from mount share drive to local folder through script

Question

This is my first time trying to work with Linux Scripts so this may be something obvious.

Here is what I am trying to do:

1. Remove all contents from local folder - rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/
2. Copy files from a shared windows network drive - cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/

So from my understanding my command should look like this

  rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/
  cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

But anytime I try and run either of the above commands I get the following error:

  "rm: cannot remove `/home/user/Documents/Exercise/': Is a directory"
  "cp: cannot stat `smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/': No such file or directory"

What am I doing wrong?

Kind Regards,

M

EDIT:

I now have the rm function working yet am still troubled by the cp function. To ensure it is not an issue with the spaces in the folder names I have renamed the folders on the share so it now reads: //server/Arc/ExerciseFiles/*

I have mounted the folder so I (assume) no longer need the smb://. It currently reads: cp -rfv /home/user/Documents/ExerciseShare/ExerciseFiles/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

M

Solution 1

No your commands should look like following

  rm -rfv /home/user/Documents/Exercise/*

because folder Exercise can have subdirectories

and in case of a samba share first you have to mount it locally

i.e.

mount -t smbfs smb://"server/arc/Exercise Files/Word/" /mnt 

and then do

 cp /mnt /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

Solution 2

You have to use the "minus r" flag or -r

rm -r

and

cp -r

This will copy or delete recursively into folders or files within files.

Comments

[Registered User]

if there are blank spaces in your directory names I feel they probably are causing the problem so you can do some thing like quoting the names in double quotes ""

[Mitchell]

OP updated. rm command resolved thankyou. Still issues with cp.

[Registered User]

sudo apt-get install smbfs This will install the samba filesystem package on your system, simply re-run the mount command when you’ve got this package sirnet.co.uk/archives/114

[Mitchell]

I think it must have been the %20 in the originals. I restarted the machine and used the exact same command and it worked!

[Mitchell]

the following command worked - cp -rfv /home/user/Documents/ExerciseShare/ExerciseFiles/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/ thankyou for all your help!