How to make duplicates with different names from a single file?

Question

I want to duplicate the contents of a file. Suppose there is a file named "Hydrogen.element". I want to duplicate the contents of this file with a different name ie.make another file named "Helium.element". I am actually making a periodic table and I want to use the file named "Hydrogen.element" as a template.

Solution 1

You would like to copy out a list of files from same source:

#!/bin/bash
Elements=('Helium' 'Aluminium' 'Argon') # Items to copy
Source='Hydrogen'  # Copy from this file

for x in "${Elements[@]}"; do 
  cp "$Source" "$x.element"
done

After which I will get:

Aluminium.element Argon.element Helium.element

They all share the same content of Hydrogen

Solution 2

Why not use cp command?

for ELEMENT in {1..10}.element; do cp Hydrogen.element element$ELEMENT; done

This command would create 10 files of the name element1.element, element2.element, etc. You can then just rename the files with the relevant element name. If you need to generate more element files, you can change the {1..10} to {1..92} to create 92 files.

(reference)

Comments

[daisy]

Question seems incomplete, just copying the files with different filename ?

[Alan Wills -MSFT]

yes correct @warl0ck

[jokerdino]

It should. What happened when you tried?

[knuckle_sandwich]

Have you used cd to navigate to the directory?

[Alan Wills -MSFT]

i tried it with multiple file like cp Hydrogen.element Helium.element Aluminium.element Argon.element Arsenic.element Antimony.element Astatine.element Acitnium.element Americium.element

[jokerdino]

@PranitBauva The given command would work for only element. I'll update my answer in a while with your updated requirement.

[jokerdino]

I am probably doing it wrong but when I run your script, I get only Helium, file. What am I doing wrong?

[daisy]

@jokerdino sorry, I made a mistake, now it works ;-P

[daisy]

@jokerdino I updated the script and generated result, maybe I'm wrong with your requirements

[jokerdino]

Never mind me. It actually is working.