Simply copy multiple files at once from command line
There are several ways you could achieve this. The easiest I have seen is to use the following.
cp /home/usr/dir/{file1,file2,file3,file4} /home/usr/destination/
The syntax uses the cp command followed by the path to the directory the desired files are located in with all the files you wish to copy wrapped in brackets and separated by commas.
Make sure to note that there are no spaces between the files. The last part of the command, /home/usr/destination/
, is the directory you wish to copy the files into.
or if the all the files have the same prefix but different endings you could do something like this:
cp /home/usr/dir/file{1..4} ./
Where file1,file2,file3 and file4 would be copied.
From how you worded the question I believe this is what you're looking for but it also sounds like you might be looking for a command to read from a list of files and copy all of them to a certain directory. If that is the case let me know and i'll edit my answer.
Dealing with duplicates with python
So I wrote a little python script that I believe should get the job done. However, I am not sure how well versed you are in python (if versed at all) so I will try explaining how to use this script the best I can and please ask as many questions about it as you need.
import os,sys,shutil
### copies a list of files from source. handles duplicates.
def rename(file_name, dst, num=1):
#splits file name to add number distinction
(file_prefix, exstension) = os.path.splitext(file_name)
renamed = "%s(%d)%s" % (file_prefix,num,exstension)
#checks if renamed file exists. Renames file if it does exist.
if os.path.exists(dst + renamed):
return rename(file_name, dst, num + 1)
else:
return renamed
def copy_files(src,dst,file_list):
for files in file_list:
src_file_path = src + files
dst_file_path = dst + files
if os.path.exists(dst_file_path):
new_file_name = rename(files, dst)
dst_file_path = dst + new_file_name
print "Copying: " + dst_file_path
try:
shutil.copyfile(src_file_path,dst_file_path)
except IOError:
print src_file_path + " does not exist"
raw_input("Please, press enter to continue.")
def read_file(file_name):
f = open(file_name)
#reads each line of file (f), strips out extra whitespace and
#returns list with each line of the file being an element of the list
content = [x.strip() for x in f.readlines()]
f.close()
return content
src = sys.argv[1]
dst = sys.argv[2]
file_with_list = sys.argv[3]
copy_files(src,dst,read_file(file_with_list))
This script should be relatively simple to use. First off, copy the above code into the program gedit (should be pre-installed in Ubuntu) or any other text editor.
After that is complete, save the file as move.py in your home directory (it can be any directory but for ease of instruction lets just use the home directory) or add the directory the file is contained in to your PATH. Then cd
to your home directory (or whatever directory you saved move.py in) from the terminal and type the following command:
python move.py /path/to/src/ /path/to/dst/ file.txt
This should copy all of the files that are listed from the source directory to the destination directory with duplicates taking the format pic(1).jpg, pic(2).jpg and so on.
file.txt should be a file that lists all the pictures you would like to copy with each entry on its own separate line.
In no way should this script effect the source directory, however just make sure to enter the correct paths to the source and destination directory and the worst that could happen is you copy the files to the wrong directory.
Notes
- This script assumes that all of the original pictures are in the same
directory. If you want it to check sub directories as well the script
will need to be modified.
- If you accidentally mistype a file name, the script will spit out the error
"file does not exist" and prompt you to "press enter" to continue and the script will continue copying the rest of the list.
- Don't forget the trailing
/
on both the path to the source
directory and path to the destination directory. Otherwise the script
will spit an error back at you.
Desktop is a directory in your user's home directory.
If your language is English it is called Desktop
.
To copy some file
there, you can run
cp file ~/Desktop
~
stands for /home/<username>
If your UI language is not English, it is called differently.
You can do a copy without finding the correct name by
cp file "$(xdg-user-dir DESKTOP)"
You can get the name of the Desktop directory by
xdg-user-dir DESKTOP
You can use mv
instead of cp
if you want to move a file instead of copying.
Best Answer
To glob for the different names, you can use a
for
loop like soRemove the
echo
after testing to actually move the files.I have copied your paths exactly (including the possible typo in
Descktop
?), but you could instead do this with relative paths:(remove
echo
after testing as before)