CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashmv
econ
econ

Reputation: 547

bash: move a file from an unknown subdirectory (wildcard?)

Suppose there is a directory with many sub-directories aaa, bbb, ccc... In one (and only one!) of these directories is a file called x.txt (but I don't know in which of the directories).

I wanted to move that file to an alternative directory using:

mv */x.txt {target_dir}

However this doesn't work: No such file or directory

As a solution I ended up looping over all sub-directories and checking if the file is there with [ -f ], and moving the file once located.

However, I was wondering if there is a simpler solution?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 662

Answers (2)

Dave
Dave

Reputation: 3623

From the bash manpage:

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.

You could try enabling the 'globstar' option, and using

shopt -s globstar
echo **/x.txt

If the echo finds the file, so will the equivalent

mv **/x.txt {target_dir}

Note: globstar is a bash only option (added in bash 4.0) If you use an older release (such as the bash 3 which is standard on the MAC) this will not work.

Upvotes: 1

sjsam
sjsam

Reputation: 21965

find . -type f -name x.txt -exec mv {} target_dir \;

Upvotes: 3

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