Create folders from space-delimited filenames and copy files into them

I'm currently trying to organize several thousand files which are named according to what's in them, and the various "tags," if you will, are separated by spaces. So, for example:

foo_bar bar_foo.txt

I'm relatively new to Linux/Unix, and was wondering if there was a way to iterate through every file, create folders based on the tags, and copy the files to those folders?

So we'd end up with:

./foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./foo_bar/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./bar_foo/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

So far, I've been manually doing everything like this:

mkdir foo_bar

cp *foo_bar* foo_bar/

mkdir bar_foo

cp *bar_foo* bar_foo/

...

Obviously this is pretty time-inefficient, so I'm just looking for a way to automatically do it.

Edit: Some more examples:

Input:

./a b c d.txt

./b a d.txt

./c d e.txt

./d a.txt

Output:

All original files still in parent directory, plus:



./a/a b c d.txt

./a/b a d.txt

./a/d a.txt



./b/a b c d.txt

./b/b a d.txt



./c/a b c d.txt

./c/c d e.txt



./d/a b c d.txt

./d/b a d.txt

./d/c d e.txt

./d/d a.txt



./e/c d e.txt

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

add a comment |

I'm currently trying to organize several thousand files which are named according to what's in them, and the various "tags," if you will, are separated by spaces. So, for example:

foo_bar bar_foo.txt

I'm relatively new to Linux/Unix, and was wondering if there was a way to iterate through every file, create folders based on the tags, and copy the files to those folders?

So we'd end up with:

./foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./foo_bar/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./bar_foo/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

So far, I've been manually doing everything like this:

mkdir foo_bar

cp *foo_bar* foo_bar/

mkdir bar_foo

cp *bar_foo* bar_foo/

...

Obviously this is pretty time-inefficient, so I'm just looking for a way to automatically do it.

Edit: Some more examples:

Input:

./a b c d.txt

./b a d.txt

./c d e.txt

./d a.txt

Output:

All original files still in parent directory, plus:



./a/a b c d.txt

./a/b a d.txt

./a/d a.txt



./b/a b c d.txt

./b/b a d.txt



./c/a b c d.txt

./c/c d e.txt



./d/a b c d.txt

./d/b a d.txt

./d/c d e.txt

./d/d a.txt



./e/c d e.txt

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

add a comment |

I'm currently trying to organize several thousand files which are named according to what's in them, and the various "tags," if you will, are separated by spaces. So, for example:

foo_bar bar_foo.txt

I'm relatively new to Linux/Unix, and was wondering if there was a way to iterate through every file, create folders based on the tags, and copy the files to those folders?

So we'd end up with:

./foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./foo_bar/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./bar_foo/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

So far, I've been manually doing everything like this:

mkdir foo_bar

cp *foo_bar* foo_bar/

mkdir bar_foo

cp *bar_foo* bar_foo/

...

Obviously this is pretty time-inefficient, so I'm just looking for a way to automatically do it.

Edit: Some more examples:

Input:

./a b c d.txt

./b a d.txt

./c d e.txt

./d a.txt

Output:

All original files still in parent directory, plus:



./a/a b c d.txt

./a/b a d.txt

./a/d a.txt



./b/a b c d.txt

./b/b a d.txt



./c/a b c d.txt

./c/c d e.txt



./d/a b c d.txt

./d/b a d.txt

./d/c d e.txt

./d/d a.txt



./e/c d e.txt

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

I'm currently trying to organize several thousand files which are named according to what's in them, and the various "tags," if you will, are separated by spaces. So, for example:

foo_bar bar_foo.txt

I'm relatively new to Linux/Unix, and was wondering if there was a way to iterate through every file, create folders based on the tags, and copy the files to those folders?

So we'd end up with:

./foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./foo_bar/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

./bar_foo/foo_bar bar_foo.txt

So far, I've been manually doing everything like this:

mkdir foo_bar

cp *foo_bar* foo_bar/

mkdir bar_foo

cp *bar_foo* bar_foo/

...

Obviously this is pretty time-inefficient, so I'm just looking for a way to automatically do it.

Edit: Some more examples:

Input:

./a b c d.txt

./b a d.txt

./c d e.txt

./d a.txt

Output:

All original files still in parent directory, plus:



./a/a b c d.txt

./a/b a d.txt

./a/d a.txt



./b/a b c d.txt

./b/b a d.txt



./c/a b c d.txt

./c/c d e.txt



./d/a b c d.txt

./d/b a d.txt

./d/c d e.txt

./d/d a.txt



./e/c d e.txt

bash filenames file-copy

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

edited 1 hour ago

Rui F Ribeiro

39.6k1479132

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

asked Dec 9 '16 at 9:34

Swammy

add a comment |

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

try this.. remove the echo.. if you are happy with the commands...

ls * | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u | while read a; do echo mkdir -p $a; echo mv ${a}*txt ${a}; done

modified answer

$ ls

    a b c d.txt  b a d.txt  c d e.txt  d a.txt

$ ls * | sed "s/.txt//;s/ /n/g" | sort -u | while read file; do echo mkdir -p $file; echo mv *${file}*.txt ${file}; done

    mkdir -p a

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt d a.txt a

    mkdir -p b

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt b

    mkdir -p c

    mv a b c d.txt c d e.txt c

    mkdir -p d

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt c d e.txt d a.txt d

    mkdir -p e

    mv c d e.txt e

Note: as you want the file be present in your original directory.. use cp instead of mv

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

|
show 1 more comment

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1 Answer
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active

oldest

votes

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

try this.. remove the echo.. if you are happy with the commands...

ls * | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u | while read a; do echo mkdir -p $a; echo mv ${a}*txt ${a}; done

modified answer

$ ls

    a b c d.txt  b a d.txt  c d e.txt  d a.txt

$ ls * | sed "s/.txt//;s/ /n/g" | sort -u | while read file; do echo mkdir -p $file; echo mv *${file}*.txt ${file}; done

    mkdir -p a

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt d a.txt a

    mkdir -p b

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt b

    mkdir -p c

    mv a b c d.txt c d e.txt c

    mkdir -p d

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt c d e.txt d a.txt d

    mkdir -p e

    mv c d e.txt e

Note: as you want the file be present in your original directory.. use cp instead of mv

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

|
show 1 more comment

try this.. remove the echo.. if you are happy with the commands...

ls * | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u | while read a; do echo mkdir -p $a; echo mv ${a}*txt ${a}; done

modified answer

$ ls

    a b c d.txt  b a d.txt  c d e.txt  d a.txt

$ ls * | sed "s/.txt//;s/ /n/g" | sort -u | while read file; do echo mkdir -p $file; echo mv *${file}*.txt ${file}; done

    mkdir -p a

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt d a.txt a

    mkdir -p b

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt b

    mkdir -p c

    mv a b c d.txt c d e.txt c

    mkdir -p d

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt c d e.txt d a.txt d

    mkdir -p e

    mv c d e.txt e

Note: as you want the file be present in your original directory.. use cp instead of mv

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

|
show 1 more comment

try this.. remove the echo.. if you are happy with the commands...

ls * | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u | while read a; do echo mkdir -p $a; echo mv ${a}*txt ${a}; done

modified answer

$ ls

    a b c d.txt  b a d.txt  c d e.txt  d a.txt

$ ls * | sed "s/.txt//;s/ /n/g" | sort -u | while read file; do echo mkdir -p $file; echo mv *${file}*.txt ${file}; done

    mkdir -p a

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt d a.txt a

    mkdir -p b

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt b

    mkdir -p c

    mv a b c d.txt c d e.txt c

    mkdir -p d

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt c d e.txt d a.txt d

    mkdir -p e

    mv c d e.txt e

Note: as you want the file be present in your original directory.. use cp instead of mv

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

try this.. remove the echo.. if you are happy with the commands...

ls * | awk '{print $1}' | sort -u | while read a; do echo mkdir -p $a; echo mv ${a}*txt ${a}; done

modified answer

$ ls

    a b c d.txt  b a d.txt  c d e.txt  d a.txt

$ ls * | sed "s/.txt//;s/ /n/g" | sort -u | while read file; do echo mkdir -p $file; echo mv *${file}*.txt ${file}; done

    mkdir -p a

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt d a.txt a

    mkdir -p b

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt b

    mkdir -p c

    mv a b c d.txt c d e.txt c

    mkdir -p d

    mv a b c d.txt b a d.txt c d e.txt d a.txt d

    mkdir -p e

    mv c d e.txt e

Note: as you want the file be present in your original directory.. use cp instead of mv

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

edited Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

answered Dec 9 '16 at 9:52

Kamaraj

2,9441513

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

|
show 1 more comment

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

Well, that almost works, but it only sorts by the first tag, so if we had multiple files with the foo_bar tag, but it wasn't the first tag, they wouldn't end up in the same folder.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 9:55

can you add more input and expected output... more files and which folder it has to go...etc...

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 9:57

Alright, I added a few more.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:03

check the modified answer

– Kamaraj
Dec 9 '16 at 10:11

If I just remove the various ".txt"s from your answer, will that make it work with every file type, or would it require further modification? I just used .txt in the examples because it's the most common of all the files we have, but there are some of other types.

– Swammy
Dec 9 '16 at 10:16

|
show 1 more comment

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