# I need some help with some Linux / Unix commands, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219 "2010-08-05T02:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/1 "2010-08-05T02:41:09Z")
I submitted this accidentally… please see next post for content. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/2 "2010-08-05T02:55:41Z")
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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/3 "2010-08-05T03:00:39Z")
Problem: I have uploaded tens of thousands of files accidentally to directory where I want them all to be singly: file 1 file 2 tile 3 etc. Instead, I uploaded them in subfolders, almost 600 of them, so that the directory structure is: directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1000 to 1100/file1.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1000 to 1100/file2.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1000 to 1100/file3.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1000 to 1100/file4.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1000 to 1100/file5.jpg etc for another 95 files, then the next one directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file100.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file101.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file102.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file103.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file104.jpg directory1/directory2/directory3/DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN/1101 to 1200/file105.jpg So a friend told me that I could use the mv command to move all the jpgs out of the individual directory/folders and into DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN. But I’m having a bitch of a time, it’s not working. I looked at the help file for the mv command, and the first thing that jumped out at me was the -T and -t which make a big difference, since I could end up renaming things instead of moving them. So basically I need to know how to write the command that does this: (assuming that I am actually IN the DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN directory…) Find all the .jpg files that are contained in the directories that are in this diectory. Then move them directly into this directory itself, discarding the subdirectories/folders they are now in. And the numbered directories are named as I showed them…with spaces between the numbers and the word “to”, which my friend tells me means I must refer to them with question marks or \backslashes in the spaces. help… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/4 "2010-08-05T03:23:14Z")
Ok, I just did an experiment on this, and to move the files out of the subdirectories I came up with (assuming you’re in DIRECTORY\_I\_WANT\_FILES\_TO\_BE\_IN) ```auto for x in */*.jpg; do mv "$x" .; done ``` And then to remove the (now empty, I think) directories, ```auto find * -type d -print0 | xargs -0 rmdir ``` I should add: if you have other sub-directories other than “1000 to 1100”, “1101 to 1200”, etc., these codes will need to be modified a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/5 "2010-08-05T03:38:33Z")
A little more experimenting, and I’ve got ```auto find *\ to\ * -name *.jpg -print0 | xargs -0 mv -t. ``` to move the files out of your subdirectories, and ```auto find *\ to\ * -type d -print0 | xargs -0 rmdir ``` to remove the empty directories. This should leave any other subdirectories untouched, if there are any others. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/6 "2010-08-05T03:56:57Z")
I would check to make sure the directories are actually empty before deleting them. find is the best tool but I’ve always hated it, so I did it the ugly way. ```auto ls -d */ | while read line; do [[-z $(ls -A "$line")]] && rm -rf "$line"; done ``` test with echo: # mkdir ‘1101 to 1200’ ‘1000 to 1100’ # touch ‘1000 to 1100’/foo.txt # ls 1\* 1000 to 1100: foo.txt 1101 to 1200: # ls -d \*/ | while read line; do [[-z $(ls -A “$line”)]] && echo “$line is empty”; done 1101 to 1200/ is empty # ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/7 "2010-08-05T04:02:15Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I would check to make sure the directories are actually empty before deleting them. rmdir only deletes empty directories by default. This shouldn’t be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/8 "2010-08-05T04:25:02Z")
It is amazing how nothing ever seems to work and how many different ways unix/linux seems to ahve to do things. I really have only the vaguest idea about what I’m doing here, in case that wasn’t obvious. I tried: find \*\ to\ \* -name \*.jpg -print0 | xargs -0 mv -t. and this was the error: > [@](#): > > find: paths must precede expression > Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path…] [expression] > mv: missing file operand > Try `mv --help’ for more information. my actual pwd: /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/httpdocs/members/pictorials/photos directory listing shows a bunch of individual photos (since I’ve been doing it by hand via drag and drop and I’ve worked through about 10,000 of the 60,000 files…) AND the following directories (partial) 30201 to 30300 30301 to 30400 30401 to 30500 30501 to 30600 30601 to 30700 30701 to 30800 30801 to 30900 30901 to 31000 31001 to 31100 31101 to 31200 31201 to 31300 31301 to 31400 31401 to 31500 31501 to 31600 31601 to 31700 31701 to 31800 31801 to 31900 31901 to 32000 32001 to 32100 32101 to 32200 32201 to 32300 32301 to 32400 32401 to 32500 32501 to 32600 32601 to 32700 32701 to 32800 32801 to 32900 32901 to 33000 33001 to 33100 33101 to 33200 33201 to 33300 33301 to 33400 33401 to 33500 33501 to 33600 33601 to 33700 33701 to 33800 33801 to 33900 33901 to 34000 etc. which each contain a hundred jpegs so, now that you know exactly what it is, can you tell me exactly what the command is to pull all the jpgs out of hte folders and into the folder I’m in, which is /photos/? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/9 "2010-08-05T05:14:20Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > It is amazing how nothing ever seems to work and how many different ways unix/linux seems to ahve to do things. > > I really have only the vaguest idea about what I’m doing here, in case that wasn’t obvious. > > I tried: > > find \*\ to\ \* -name \*.jpg -print0 | xargs -0 mv -t. > > and this was the error: > > > [@](#): > > > > find: paths must precede expression > > Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path…] [expression] > > mv: missing file operand > > Try `mv --help’ for more information. Let’s try a slightly different syntax for the find command. How about: ```auto find . -path "./*to*/*.jpg" ``` This should return a complete listing of every .jpg file in your folders “30201 to 30300”, “30301 to 30400”, etc (and none of the photos in directory you’re currently in). You can check that none of the files in the /photos/ directory are seen by appending the command ```auto find . -path "./*to*/*.jpg" | grep -v " to " ``` This command should return nothing. If everything looks ok so far, then append the xargs command, so it looks like ```auto find . -path "./*to*/*.jpg" -print0 | xargs -0 mv -t . ``` ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/10 "2010-08-05T05:28:41Z")
> [@Dr.Love](#): > > > [@Fubaya](#): > > > > I would check to make sure the directories are actually empty before deleting them. > > rmdir only deletes empty directories by default. This shouldn’t be a problem. Sheesh, 10 years using nothing but Linux and I never realized that. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/11 "2010-08-05T07:03:55Z")
> [@Dr.Love](#): > > How about: > > ```auto > > find . -path "./*to*/*.jpg" > > ``` > > This should return a complete listing of every .jpg file in your folders “30201 to 30300”, “30301 to 30400”, etc (and none of the photos in directory you’re currently in). Since it sounds like it might be a looonnnng list, you might want to pipe the output to _less_ to buffer the list for display on the screen. That is, rather than just having the list scroll off the screen. Oh, the modified command would be (the vertical line is a “pipe”): ```auto find . -path "./*to*/*.jpg" | less ``` ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/12 "2010-08-05T12:26:51Z")
Call me lazy, but why not just: mv _/_.jpg ./ && rmdir \* ? ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/13 "2010-08-07T01:25:10Z")
So nothing that you guys or my other friend told me to do worked. nothing. Here’s what did. I ran the find command accidentally all by itself. This was interesting, because what it returned was a listing of every file that was deeper than where I was, with the file path - I think I ran it from within /photos/, but if not it was from one level up. it looked like this: ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9919.jpg ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9920.jpg ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9921.jpg Which I found very interesting. Especially the dot. So, rather than continue to wrestle, I did what made sense to me. I copied the list of 50,000 photos and their exact paths to a BBedit file. I search/replaced **./** with **mv ./** , then replaced **.jpg** with **.jpg photos** , which of course gave me: mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9919.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9920.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9921.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9922.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9923.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9924.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9925.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9926.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9927.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9928.jpg photos mv ./photos/30401?to?30500/60ccba-9929.jpg photos I pasted a couple of lines at the bash prompt. It worked. So I pasted 5000 lines of it. THAT worked. (And created a very psychedelic visual!) So I pasted the other 45,000 lines and went and had dinner with a neighbor. It worked. The long way around, I suppose, but IT WORKED. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/14 "2010-08-07T01:27:05Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > > [@Dr.Love](#): > > > > rmdir only deletes empty directories by default. This shouldn’t be a problem. > > Sheesh, 10 years using nothing but Linux and I never realized that. That’s nothing, this is the first time I’ve ever even heard of a rmdir command in Linux. I’ve only known about/used rm -R. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/15 "2010-08-07T01:56:24Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > So nothing that you guys or my other friend told me to do worked. nothing. Really? Mind if I ask what kind of Linux you’re using? ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/16 "2010-08-07T05:18:37Z")
Next time you have a file with 45,000 commands to run, you can just do this at the bash prompt. ```auto . filename ``` Just a dot and the filename. Bash will “source” the file, meaning it will read the file and run all the commands in it. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/17 "2010-08-07T05:19:25Z")
CentOs is what I think its called ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/18 "2010-08-07T05:33:50Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > Next time you have a file with 45,000 commands to run, you can just do this at the bash prompt. > > ```auto > > . filename > > ``` > > Just a dot and the filename. Bash will “source” the file, meaning it will read the file and run all the commands in it. …ummm…sure…whatever that means…(I had 50,000 filenames, only one command) With the greatest respect and deference, I’ve been having people here and elsewhere say “You JUST… blah blah blah” for days, like it’s all supposed to be perfectly clear. IT IS NOT. I’m new at this. If you want to be helpful and nice, I’m very grateful…but it requires holding my hand and walking me through ALL The steps. “you just [insert incomplete and vague reference here]” is completely useless to me. Except that it gives me just enough information to do what I ended up doing, I guess. (re: find) I’m a very intelligent woman and I’m pretty comfortable with computers, (I actually learned how to use a computer via command line, seeing as my introduction to computers was CP/M, which predates ms-dos- but that was a quarter century ago. Once I met Macintosh, I left all that crazy command line shit behind me, and happily so.) but command line is a whole other mindset, one I don’t naturally possess. So when I do ANYTHING with it, I need to have it all sort of translated into English. I do appreciate the time and effort, I truly do. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/19 "2010-08-07T06:01:11Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > > [@Fubaya](#): > > > > Next time you have a file with 45,000 commands to run, you can just do this at the bash prompt. > > > > ```auto > > > > . filename > > > > ``` > > > > Just a dot and the filename. Bash will “source” the file, meaning it will read the file and run all the commands in it. > > …ummm…sure…whatever that means…(I had 50,000 filenames, only one command) It means you save the big ugly command line into a file and then ‘source’ it the next time you need it. Which isn’t how I’d do it, BTW: I’d put it into a file, but I’d then give the file executable permissions by typing ‘chmod +x filename’ and make sure the file was in ~/bin or some other directory listed in my $PATH environment variable. If anything in the above was hazy or unclear to you, you need to read something like [this bash scripting tutorial](http://www.linuxconfig.org/Bash_scripting_Tutorial). CentOS (which is Red Hat Enterprise Linux in every essential respect; in case you see ‘RHEL’ mentioned that’s what it means) ships with bash as its default shell and it’s the one you’re using unless you _know_ you aren’t. You might follow it up with [the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide](http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/), which will take you to the point where you should be able to do most of this stuff without problems. > [@](#): > > With the greatest respect and deference, I’ve been having people here and elsewhere say “You JUST… blah blah blah” for days, like it’s all supposed to be perfectly clear. IT IS NOT. I’m new at this. If you want to be helpful and nice, I’m very grateful…but it requires holding my hand and walking me through ALL The steps. “you just [insert incomplete and vague reference here]” is completely useless to me. This is understandable. I think the intention is to make it clear that none of this is magical or beyond you; it’s just badly phrased. > [@](#): > > I’m a very intelligent woman and I’m pretty comfortable with computers, (I actually learned how to use a computer via command line, seeing as my introduction to computers was CP/M, which predates ms-dos- but that was a quarter century ago. Ah, the land of PIP and BDOS! 🙂 You can travel back to those thrilling days of yesteryear with [simh](http://simh.trailing-edge.com/) and an appropriate [software kit.](http://simh.trailing-edge.com/software.html) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219/20 "2010-08-07T06:14:07Z")
[The Linux Documentation Project has a set of guides on many topics](http://tldp.org/guides.html) which are frequently useful. [Bash Guide for Beginners](http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/index.html) might be of particular interest here. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-help-with-some-linux-unix-commands-please/549219.md?page=2)