We can copy some file by extensions like this:
cp *.txt ../new/ but how can I copy all files that have no extension?
3 Answers
The answer from @ubaid-ashraf is almost there. The way to specify file with no extension, in ksh would be:
cp -- !(*.*) /new/path/ so that any file with dot in file name is skipped.
For that to work in bash, you need to enable the extglob option (shopt -s extglob) and the kshglob option in zsh (set -o kshglob).
- the problem with this (and @ubaid-ashraf 's solution) is that it will also move directories , since most directories will not have any extensions. My solution would ensure that there are no directories movedamisax– amisax2015-07-03 04:49:19 +00:00Commented Jul 3, 2015 at 4:49
- 2No it would not move directories.
cpwould skip directories unless used with-ror-Roption.Abel Cheung– Abel Cheung2015-07-03 04:56:16 +00:00Commented Jul 3, 2015 at 4:56 - And what if I have a file called
my.file.txt?Lambert– Lambert2015-07-03 07:36:24 +00:00Commented Jul 3, 2015 at 7:36 - 1why do you use
--after cp? i do that without--and it works. btw, what is usage of--?Hossein Nasr– Hossein Nasr2015-10-31 16:37:58 +00:00Commented Oct 31, 2015 at 16:37 - 2@hoosssein Double dash prevents anything that follows to be treated as command line options. If there are odd file names like "-r" or "-s", double dash can help guarding against potential disaster.Abel Cheung– Abel Cheung2015-11-02 05:08:02 +00:00Commented Nov 2, 2015 at 5:08
You can do something like:
cp -- !(*.txt) /path/to/directory The above code will copy all the files without .txt extension. You can also give multiple extension via pipe character.
For example:
cp -- !(*.txt|*.c|*.py) /path/to/directory 
You can use find to get only files (regular ones only with -type f) that have no extension:
LC_ALL=C find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name '*.*' -type f So your copy command would be:
LC_ALL=C find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name '*.*' -type f -exec cp {} destination_folder/ \; Note that find (contrary to shell globs) does consider hidden files, but since those contain a . (at least one at the start), they won't be copied. For instance, neither .bashrc nor .file.conf will be copied as they both contain a . even if in the first case, the dot may not be seen as the extension delimiter. Changing the pattern to ?*.* would cause .bashrc to be copied and not .file.conf.
To avoid running one cp per file, on GNU systems:
LC_ALL=C find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name '*.*' -type f -exec cp -t destination_folder {} + On BSDs:
LC_ALL=C find . -maxdepth 1 -type f \! -name '*.*' -print0 | xargs -r0 -J {} cp {} destination_folder/ POSIXly:
LC_ALL=C find . ! -name . -prune ! -name '*.*' -type f -exec sh -c ' exec cp "$@" destination_folder/' sh {} + 
a,a.txt,b,b.txt...