recreating folders

[kingcobraa]

Hi,

I have about 570 folders and sub-folders on my disk.

I need to create the exact named copy of folders and sub folders, I would also need to copy over all files within the folders and subfolders from origin to destination drive, meaning exclude the files that have the .xyz extension. The reason for this is that I have some corrupted files which I do not want to transfer over. It is really important that I get this solved as soon as possible!

Is there a command that can do this quickly?

kind regards

[TheFu]

Yes, there is. I don't have it myself at this instance, but either rsync or a find -exec mkdir -p command is where I'd start.

I didn't test this, but ....

find $TOP_DIRECTORY -type d -exec mkdir -p {} \;

ought to do it. Run it from the directory where you want all the subdirs to be created. Don't expect groups, owners and special permissions to be retained. Might want to include symlinks (or NOT) and other special ACLs too. Don't know your situation.

That should get you started on a workable path.

Update ... that find command may need to be swapped around ... that is run from the source directory to get relative dirs.

find . -type d -exec mkdir -p $TARGET_DIR/{} \;

Does that make sense?

[steeldriver]

There's a bunch of hairy-chested ways to do this, however I *think* the easiest way is using rsync, with filters to exclude everything and include directories e.g.

rsync -av -f'+ */' -f'- *' /path/to/source/dir/ /path/to/target/dir/

see for example http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/unix-li...s-trees-rsync/

e.g. to duplicate the directory structure of your Documents directory

rsync -av -f'+ */' -f'- *' ~/Documents/ ~/Documents2

(rsync creates the Documents2 directory for you - no need to mkdir first)

[kingcobraa]

Hi, please see my edit.

[kingcobraa]

hi i tried the commands and get errorsrsync -av -f'+ */' -f'- *' /home/downloads/All workouts/ /home/desktop/all workouts/
sending incremental file list
rsync: change_dir "/home/downloads" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/home/desktop/all" failed: No such file or directory (2)

sent 2074939 bytes received 1729 bytes 1384445.33 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1070) [sender=3.0.9]

[TheFu]

Hi, please see my edit.

Copying all files is exactly what rsync is for. Use the --exclude option to prevent specific file patterns.

rsync -avz --exclude '.xyz' SOURCE TARGET

man rsync explains more. Your Linux system already has most answers preloaded.

[steeldriver]

... and put the SOURCE and TARGET directory paths in quotes since you have spaces in them

[TheFu]

... and put the SOURCE and TARGET directory paths in quotes since you have spaces in them

Most definitely correct. Thanks SD!

[oldfred]

If you look at all the options rsync has it can be very confusing as it has so many. I think you need exclude or filter option to restrict what you copy. I use --exclude but with a file with several folders listed in the file that I do not want to copy.

I use a script for backup but like to list the options I may use, just to remmember what I am doing. Best to use the n option for testing until you are sure you have correct settings.

If a one time thing you do not need script just the one line rsync command.
#!/bin/bash
# backup script - mybackup.sh
# a - archive, retain file settings equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
# r - recursive / subdirectories
# u - update, only newer
# v - verbose
# P - keep partial files and report progress
# -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
# -i, --itemize-changes
# -t, --times preserve modification times
# --exclude option to prevent copying things

rsync -aruvlP /home/fred/Notebooks /mnt/data/Notebooks
rsync -aurvlP --exclude-from=mybackup_excludes.lst /home /mnt/backup
I do not now use this as my excludes.lst became so long as not to easily be on one line, so I use file like above.
#rsync -aurvlP --exclude '.thumbnails' /home /mnt/backup

Above are in script, so i do not need sudo, but if just running the one command line, you would need sudo.

See man rsync for more info.

[Dennis N]

The structure of the file system is not clear here and really has a bearing on the solution - where are the 570 folders in relation to one another? Are they scattered all about your home folder in various places, or subfolders of another? In any case, the option --exclude=*.xyz will omit files with that extension from being copied.