If I wanted to copy all *.so files from src to dst I'd do:
cp src/*.so dst However, I want to copy all *.so files from src and it's subdirs into dst. Any clues?
- You will find your answer here. unix.stackexchange.com/a/24243Aarij Siddiqui– Aarij Siddiqui2020-10-09 11:22:49 +00:00Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 11:22
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7 Answers
Try:
find src/ -type f | grep -i so$ | xargs -i cp {} dst 
- 29
findcan do pattern matching and execute commands. There's no need to pipe its output:find src/ -type f -name '*.so' -exec cp '{}' dst/ ';'jáquer– jáquer2011-07-19 15:44:04 +00:00Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 15:44 - 1Yes, it can, however it's often easier to read a pipeline, also the pattern matching capabilities of
grepfar outweigh the simple shell patterns used in the-nameparameter tofind.xargsis also far more powerful than the-execparameter tofind.Mike Insch– Mike Insch2011-07-19 15:51:20 +00:00Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 15:51 - 2Solution of @jaquer is much better because on MacOSX xargs utility does not have -i option. But his solution works like a charm.bialix– bialix2012-12-12 13:14:48 +00:00Commented Dec 12, 2012 at 13:14
- I was struggling with an error message on the -i argument to xargs until I read the comment from @bialix regarding jaquer's solution, which worked perfectly on my Mac. Thankssvannoy– svannoy2018-02-12 22:11:47 +00:00Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 22:11
- Will this create subdirectories as needed?Mr. Developerdude– Mr. Developerdude2019-11-08 19:35:34 +00:00Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 19:35
If you're using Bash, you can turn on the globstar shell option to match files and directories recursively:
shopt -s globstar cp src/**/*.so dst If you need to find files whose names begin with ., and/or files in and under directories whose names begin with ., set the dotglob option also (e.g., with shopt -s dotglob). You can set them both in one command:
shopt -s globstar dotglob 
- 1Doesn't copy files in subdirectories starting with a . in their namerboy– rboy2018-01-08 23:56:23 +00:00Commented Jan 8, 2018 at 23:56
I tried the command suggested by Mike:
find src/ -type f | grep -i so$ | xargs -i cp {} dst but it ended up with dumping all the files into directory dst with their relative paths lost.
To keep the relative paths the command needs to be modified to this:
find src/ -type f | grep -i so$ | xargs -i cp {} dst/{} 
- 11+1. However, this assumes that the directories corresponding to the relative source paths exist under
dst. In case that's not so, usecp --parents. Also, be sure to quote the filenames. Thus:... | xargs -i cp --parents "{}" dst(note that the last argument tocpis now "just" the destination directory). The command can be made even shorter (and probably faster) using the-tflag:... | xargs cp --parents -t dst.Stephan202– Stephan2022013-09-15 20:07:45 +00:00Commented Sep 15, 2013 at 20:07 - 1@Stephan202 I had to use
... | xargs cp {} --parents -t dst.warvariuc– warvariuc2015-11-11 07:08:29 +00:00Commented Nov 11, 2015 at 7:08 - 1for those on a mac,
--parentsisn't available. I useddittoin its place: stackoverflow.com/questions/11246070/cp-parents-option-on-macBryan Young– Bryan Young2019-10-29 19:22:26 +00:00Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 19:22
Another way of doing this is like this:
find src/ -type f -name "*.so" -exec cp {} dst/ \; 
- 1And this should reduce number of
cpprocesses:... -exec cp -t dst/ {} +.Kamil Maciorowski– Kamil Maciorowski2017-11-24 13:13:20 +00:00Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 13:13 - Hey Kamil! Thank you for the comment! Can you please explain me how your solution makes things faster! Always willing to learn more :)Kyriakos– Kyriakos2017-11-25 00:45:53 +00:00Commented Nov 25, 2017 at 0:45
- 3When you end
-execwith;,{}is replaced by one path at a time. You get a separatecpfor every file. With+syntaxfindreplaces{}with multiple results (up to a system-defined limit of command line length; restriction:{}must be the last thing before+, hencecp -t). Creating and terminating a process is relatively costly thing. For this reason it's good to use+whenever you expect lots of results. In this case copying lots of files might take a lot of time anyway so the difference may pass unnoticed; nevertheless it's a good practice.Kamil Maciorowski– Kamil Maciorowski2017-11-25 07:40:02 +00:00Commented Nov 25, 2017 at 7:40
The grep can be replaced by using find's -name:
find src/ -type f -name "*.so" | xargs -i cp {} dst/{} 
For me,
shopt -s globstar cp src/**/*.so dst does not copy .so files directly in src. This does:
shopt -s globstar cp src/**/*.so dst cp src/*.so dst or this
shopt -s globstar cp src/{**/*,*}.so dst But it solves the problem of copying things directly into dst, without preserving paths.
For copying from an absolute path, I had to add a sed command.
Also, as --parent did not work properly (cp: with --parents, the destination must be a directory), I had to create the folders first.
find /root/src/ -type f \ | grep -i so$ \ | sed "s|^/root/src/||" \ | sed "s|/\([^/]*\)so$||" \ | xargs -i mkdir --parents /root/dst/{} find /root/src/ -type f \ | grep -i so$ \ | sed "s|^/root/src/||" \ | xargs -i cp /root/src/{} /root/dst/{} 