Copy specific file type keeping the folder structure

Question

I have a folder structure with a bunch of *.csv files scattered across the folders. Now I want to copy all *.csv files to another destination keeping the folder structure.

It works by doing:

cp --parents *.csv /target
cp --parents */*.csv" /target
cp --parents */*/*.csv /target
cp --parents */*/*/*.csv /target
...

and so on, but I would like to do it using one command.

Answer 1

find has a very handy -exec option:

find . -name '*.csv' -exec cp --parents \{\} /target \;

Answer 2

You could also use rsync for this.

$ rsync -a --prune-empty-dirs --include '*/' --include '*.csv' --exclude '*' source/ target/

If you want to keep empty directories from the source tree, skip the --prune-empty-dirs option:

$ rsync -a --include '*/' --include '*.csv' --exclude '*' source/ target/

If you do not want symlinks, modification dates, file permissions, owners etc. preserved, please replace -a with another combination of -rlptgoD. ;-)

Answer 3

You can use find and cpio in pass through mode

find . -name '*.csv' | cpio -pdm  /target

This will find all .csv files in the current directory and below and copy them to /target maintaining the directory structure rooted in ..

If you use

find /path/to/files -name '*.csv' | cpio -pdm /target

it will find all of the file in /path/to/files and below and copy them to /target/path/to/files and below.

Answer 4

The cp command permits multiple source arguments:

cp **/*.csv --parents ../target

CAVEAT: I'm using a recursive glob here; this is the globstar option in Bash 4+ and ksh, and is supported by default in zsh. Recursive globs do not match hidden files and folders, and the some implementations follow symlinks while others do not.

If your shell doesn't support recursive globs, or if you'd prefer not to use them, you can do the following:

• *.csv */*.csv */*/*.csv */*/*/*.csv -- this is of course very redundant and requires knowing how deep your directory structure is.
• $(find . -name '*.csv') -- This will match hidden files and folders. find also supports specifying whether or not symlinks are followed, which may be useful.

Answer 5

This one worked for me:

find -name "*.csv" | xargs cp --parents -t /target

If you have file names with spaces, add options -print0 and -0 like suggested in one of the comments:

find -name "*.csv" -print0 | xargs -0 cp --parents -t /target

Answer 6

From rsync's manpage:

-R, --relative

Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this command:

rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/

... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead you used

rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/

then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the above example).

So, this would work, too:

rsync -armR --include="*/" --include="*.csv" --exclude="*" /full/path/to/source/file(s) destination/

Answer 7

Assuming you want to replicate this structure from ./source to ./destination:

cd source
find . -name "*.csv" | xargs tar cvf - | (cd ../destination ; tar xfp -)

I'm prepared to count that as one line, the cd source being a shell builtin.