How to Run a command on all subfolders

shell files wildcards

Solution 1

Yes, changing the working directory back and forth is cumbersome and not really what you would like to do as it can lead to extremely weird situations in more complex scripts, unless you are careful.

The usual method for changing the working directory for a simple command is to put the cd and to invocation of the command in a sub-shell. The working directory will be changed for the sub-shell but the change is not carried over to the rest of the script as the sub-shell is executing in its own environment.

Example: Executing mycommand inside all directories in the current working directory:

for d in *; do
  if [ -d "$d" ]; then         # or:  if test -d "$d"; then
    ( cd "$d" && mycommand )
  fi
done

or in your case, with known directories a and b:

for d in a b; do
  ( cd "$d" && dsmmigrate * & )
done

I don't know the dsmmigrate tool, so I can't say whether running it this way is right or not.

EDIT: It turns out that the dsmmigrate tool has a -Recursive flag:

$ dsmmigrate -Recursive /path

Solution 2

You can do the following, when your current directory is parent_directory:

for d in [a-z]
do
    ( cd $d && your-command-here )
done

The ( and ) create a subshell, so the current directory isn't changed in the main script.

Solution 3

This is my way of submitting several jobs in the subfolders :

for d in */; do ( cd "$d" && yourcommand ) ; done

basickarl

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

basickarl almost 2 years
I am using this library: http://harthur.github.io/clusterfck/

I get the following extract from hierarchical clustering:
```
[
  {"canonical":[20,120,102],
   "size":1
  },
  {"canonical":[250,255,253],
   "left":{
      "canonical":[250,255,253],
      "size":1
    },
   "right":{
      "canonical":[255,255,240],
      "size":1
    },
   "size":2
  },
  {"canonical":[100,54,300],
   "size":1
  }
]
```
As you can see it does not state the ultrametric distance. Is there a way of getting the ultrametric distance data from the clustering? Or if there are any other libraries which can supply that value?
- Has QUIT--Anony-Mousse about 9 years
  
  Use the source of clusterfck.
- ctrl-alt-delor almost 8 years
  
  find . -type d -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 echo do somthing
Rahul almost 8 years

did any of answer helped you ? If yes, then please consider accepting answer by clicking on right mark below up/down arrow button.
SuperKing almost 8 years

Let say I can't place the script in the root directory but I want the command to apply to all the folders in the root directory, do I just add a cd "root directory"? In the shel code above ? Above the shell code ? Thanks
Kusalananda almost 8 years

@SuperKing No, it is likely that you can't place the script in the root directory, and you don't need to either. If you want to do this for all folders in the root directory (and you know that this is the right thing to do), then take the one of my example loops (the first one will run folder by folder) and change the frst line to for d in /*; do.
SuperKing almost 8 years

getting an error , syntax error at line 5; 'do for d in path/*; do if [ -d "$d" ]; then # or: if test -d "$d"; then ( cd "$d" && dsmmigrate * & ) fi done done
Kusalananda almost 8 years

@SuperKing The do at the start shouldn't be there. Look at what I wrote. And there's an extra done at the end...
SuperKing almost 8 years

for d in path/*; do if [ -d "$d" ]; then ( cd "$d" dsmmigrate * & ) fi done done
SuperKing almost 8 years

' unexpectedh: syntax error at line 2 : `
Kusalananda almost 8 years

@SuperKing Why do you still have two done at the end? If you remove that and make sure there are newlines after do, then, ), and fi, it ought to be correct. I just checked it with ShellCheck.
SuperKing almost 8 years

I only had one done, not sure why its showing 2 when I pasted. I think the issue is the format window format to unix ASCII
SuperKing almost 8 years

Works beautifully, however new small issue. in path/* only apply the command in the sub folders but it does not apply command to the folders within the subfolders
Kusalananda almost 8 years

@SuperKing That wasn't part of the original question, but I'll add it to the answer in a few minutes.
SuperKing almost 8 years

Not really sure how to do that, I'm a complete unix noob
Kusalananda almost 8 years

@SuperKing Ok, so I don't know what the command does, but according to its manual, you should be able to run it as dsmmigrate -Recursive /path.
Stéphane Chazelas almost 8 years

See also for d in */ to avoid the [ -d "$d" ].
SuperKing almost 8 years

@Stéphane Chazelas , what do you mean?
Stéphane Chazelas almost 8 years

@SuperKing, I mean that for d in */ will loop on directories (and symlinks to directories) only, so then you don't need to test [ -d "$d" ].