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I have files with random numbers in /home/user/files folder (every 4 days I have new ones). for example:

john20
john25
john40
tom12
tom32
simon2
simon8
simon53

I want to take only last modified files (the newest) and copy them to different location (/home/user/fixed) without that numbers in file name.

I know how to filter and copy that using find command but I don't know how copy all of them without that numbers.

find $files_are_here -maxdepth 1 -mtime -2 -type f -exec cp {} $new_path \;

This will copy all of the files modified in the last 2 days to the new path but with original name. In my case:

john40
tom32
simon53

but I would like to have only john, tom and simon inside that folder. So after I run my script again they will be replaced by the newest one.

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2 Answers 2

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1

The following is hopefully self explanatory

find -maxdepth 1 -mtime -2 -type f  -exec bash -c 'name=${1##*/}; cp  "$name" /some/other/dir/${name%%[0-9]*}' _ {} \;
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  • This assumes that you have cd’ed into the directory where the existing files are, and it breaks if you take out the -maxdepth 1. You can fix both of these by changing cp "$name" … to cp "$1" …
    – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 19:34
  • P.S. The word is “explanatory”.
    – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 19:34
  • @G-Man it indeed is 'explanatory'. I stand corrected. find when no path specified, assumes the $(PWD). So since I was not sure where OP's files were located I assumed the current dir. Then of course the command changes slightly. names${1##*/} would no longer be necessary. Just a way to show how PE (Parameter Expansion) works
    – Valentin Bajrami
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 20:19
  • Yes, I know find defaults to a path of .. But we do know where the OP’s files are located – they’re in $files_are_here. … … … … I don’t understand what you mean by “names=${1##*/} would no longer be necessary” – you still need it to have a basename to strip the digits from, in ${name%%[0-9]*}.
    – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 20:32
  • If we used "$1" as you suggested, then we could use "${1%%[0-9]*}" as being the positional parameter without defining a variable.
    – Valentin Bajrami
    Commented Aug 26, 2014 at 20:44
1 
find -mtime -2 \
     -maxdepth 1 \
    \! -type d \
    \( -name 'simon*' \
    -o -name 'tom*' \
    -o -name 'john*' \
    \) | tar -T - \
     --xform='s/[0-9]*$//' \
     -cf - | tar -C ./path/to/destination --keep-newer-files -xf -

I think that will do it - it appears to work for me. So long as the simon, tom, and john files are intended to be overwritten once every two days - I believe this should do it. Either that or it is very close. Oh, but, it does require GNU tar - and probably GNU find as well, though I'm not sure about the latter. I didn't check too hard on those because the majority of those were your own options.

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