CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbashubunturecursionfile-search
FunFly WhiteGuy
FunFly WhiteGuy

Reputation: 173

Scan For Multiple File Exentions and Copy To New Dir If Found

I am using Ubuntu and I am needing to recursively search a directory and subs for any .mp4, .mkv, or .wav files. I saw that mmv may be my best solution, but I can not get the syntax correct. So how would I convert this to search for an array of file names, or would I just want to run 3 iterations for each file extension I am after?

I was using the tutorial here to write this, so please forgive me if I am way outta line find all m3

# find / -iname "*.mp4"  -type f -exec mv {} ./Downloads/Media Files \;

Upvotes: 0

Views: 235

Answers (3)

trulstrengerikkealias
trulstrengerikkealias

Reputation: 29

Replace -iname with -regex. Regex understands emacs regular expressions by default (but you can change this behaviour using -regextype):

find / -regex ".*\.mp4\|.*\.mkv\|.*\.wav" ...

Learn the power of reguar expressions, it will open a new universe of power!

Upvotes: 0

Cyrus
Cyrus

Reputation: 88644

With GNU bash 4:

shopt -s globstar nullglob
mv -v **/*.{mp4,mkv,wav} ./Downloads/Media Files

globstar: If set, the pattern ** used in a pathname expansion context will match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by a /, only directories and subdirectories match.

nullglob: If set, bash allows patterns which match no files (see Pathname Expansion) to expand to a null string, rather than themselves.

Upvotes: 2

Diego Torres Milano
Diego Torres Milano

Reputation: 69218

You can use \( and -o (or):

find / -type f \( -iname "*.mp4" -o -iname "*.mkv" -o -iname "*.wav" \) -exec mv {} ./Downloads/Media Files \;

Upvotes: 2

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