Copy file,create duplicates in different directory with predefined list of filenames

Question

I have a file rock.mpg in the folder directory /folder1/folder2. I need to create multiple (340) duplicate copies of this file in a different directory say /folder1/folder2/folder3 but with different unique filenames.

The unique names for the 340 duplicate copies are random and also not sequential. They are already defined in a separate text file file abc.txt which I have.

A sample of duplicate file names in abc.txt as follows

MS123.mpg
DW235.mpg
WQ6748.mpg
HDJ74.mpg
...
...

so on

Can this be achieved with shell script?

Answer 1

Should be rather easy with xargs:

xargs -a abc.txt -i cp /folder1/folder2/rock.mpg /folder1/folder2/folder3/{}

• -a abc.txt tells xargs to read from abc.txt (instead of from standard input as usual)
• -i tells xargs to replace {} with a line of input

Test it with:

xargs -a abc.txt -i echo cp /folder1/folder2/rock.mpg /folder1/folder2/folder3/{}

Answer 2

with BASH only:

while read newname ; do
    cp old/dir/rock.mpg /new/dir/"$newname"
done < abc.txt

or even in a single line:

while read newname ; do ; cp old/dir/rock.mpg /new/dir/"$newname" ; done < abc.txt

The mechanism is to read each line of abc.txt as the varaible newdir and then copy the old file to the new location with this new name.