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I got a folder with a large amount of files with different suffixes in several sub folders.

My automator workflow works as follows:

  1. Ask for Finder Items
  2. Get Folder Contents (sub folder option checked)
  3. Filter Finder Items (for a specific file-suffix)
  4. Copy Finder Items

This works like a charm. But all files are copied in the same root destination folder. I need to keep the the sub folder structure. For Example:

sourceFolder subfolderA fileA.jpg fileB.xls fileC.xls subfolderB fileC.jpg fileD.xls fileE.xls

Expected result (filter for file suffix .xls):

destinationFolder subfolderA fileB.xls fileC.xls subfolderB fileD.xls fileE.xls

Current result:

destinationFolder fileB.xls fileC.xls fileD.xls fileE.xls

Update

I'm a developer. So a shell or AppleScript will be also accepted. :)

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3 Answers 3

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rsync -avh --include='*/' --include='*.xls' --exclude='*' path/to/sourceFolder/ path/to/destinationFolder

Note the / at the end of the source path, it's important. This solution would add all empty directories, if you don't want them, look at the option --prune-empty-dirs.

With brace expansion you can actually include more filetypes at once, rather than having

--include='*.xls' --include='*.pdf' --include='*.txt'

you can use 

--include='*.'{xls,pdf,txt}
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  • great. ty! i will test and come back to it. Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 14:48
  • You can add all the options you want, the important part is the includes–excludes: include all directories (necessary for recursivity) and all .xls files, then exclude everythingn else. If you want more things like --delete add them to your command. Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 15:12
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I end up with a shell script, that works as requested:

$ find ./sourceFolder -name "*.xls*" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I '{}' /usr/bin/rsync -avR "{}" "./destinationFolder/"
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  • rsync -avh --include='*/' --include='*.xls' --exclude='*' sourceFolder/ destinationFolder? With brace expansion you can actually include more filetypes --include='*.'{xls,pdf,txt}. Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 23:38
  • @Manuel ty! Any advantages / disadvantages of your solution? Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 8:54
  • That you don't concatenate through pipes, you just call rsync once with the appropiate flags. Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 9:41
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In a shell script you can use mkbom to make a BOM (bill of materials) file that contains a list of files that you want to copy. Then you can use the ditto command with the --bom option to copy only files listed in the BOM file.

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  • ty! Any advantages / disadvantages of your solution? Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 8:53

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