Copy files with renaming

file-copyrename

I have a huge file tree. Some files have same name but in different case, e.g., some_code.c and Some_Code.c.

So when I'm trying to copy it to an NTFS/FAT filesystem, it asks me about whether I want it to replace the file or skip it.

Is there any way to automatically rename such files, for example, by adding (1) to the name of conflict file (as Windows 7 does)?

Best Answer

Many GNU tools such as cp, mv and tar support creating backup files when the target exists. That is, when copying foo to bar, if there is already a file called bar, the existing bar will be renamed, and after the copy bar will contain the contents of foo. By default, bar is renamed to bar~, but the behavior can be modified:

                                # If a file foo exists in the target, then…
cp -r --backup source target    #   rename foo → foo~
cp -r --backup=t source target  #   rename foo → foo.~1~ (or foo.~2~, etc)

There are other variants, such as creating numbered backups only when one already exists. See the coreutils manual for more details.

Related Solutions

Zsh – Rename Files in Lexicographical Order with Sequential Pattern

You can use the l parameter expansion flag to pad a number on the left.

i=0; for x in *; do ((++i)); mv -- $x new/${(l:6::0:)i}; done

There is a relatively simple way to do this with only POSIX features: start numbering at 1000001 (for 6 digits) instead of 1, and strip off the leading 1. It is less straightforward but a few characters shorter.

i=1000000; for x in *; do i=$((i+1)); mv -- "$x" new/${i#1}; done

If you want to take advantage of zmv, you can use an arithmetic expression that increments i inside the replacement text.

i=0; zmv '*' '${(l:6::0:)$((++i))}'
i=1000000; zmv '*' '${$((++i))#1}'

Add the o glob qualifier if you need to sort the files in a different order. With zmv, you need to pass the -Q flag when the pattern contains glob qualifiers.

Recursive copy files with rename

As you're a zsh user:

$ tree files_input
files_input
|-- 01_2015
|   |-- subfolder-1
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-2
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-3
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-4
|   |   `-- index.html
|   `-- subfolder-5
|       `-- index.html
|-- 02_2015
|   |-- subfolder-1
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-2
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-3
|   |   `-- index.html
|   |-- subfolder-4
|   |   `-- index.html
|   `-- subfolder-5
|       `-- index.html
(etc.)

$ mkdir -p files_output
$ autoload -U zmv
$ zmv -C './files_input/(*)/(*)/index.html' './files_output/$1-$2-index.html'
$ tree files_output
files_output
|-- 01_2015-subfolder-1-index.html
|-- 01_2015-subfolder-2-index.html
|-- 01_2015-subfolder-3-index.html
|-- 01_2015-subfolder-4-index.html
|-- 01_2015-subfolder-5-index.html
|-- 02_2015-subfolder-1-index.html
|-- 02_2015-subfolder-2-index.html
(etc.)

What's happening here is that we make the command zmv available with autoload -U zmv. This command is used for renaming, copying or linking files matching a zsh extended globbing pattern.

We use zmv with its -C option, telling it to copy the files (as opposed to moving them, which is the default). We then specify a pattern that matches the files we'd want to copy, ./files_input/(*)/(*)/index.html. The two (*) matches the two levels of subdirectory names, and we put them within parentheses for use in the new name of each file. The new name of each file is the second argument, ./files_output/$1-$2-index.html, where $1 and $2 will be the strings captured by the parentheses in the pattern, i.e. back-references to the subdirectory names. Both arguments should be single quoted.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Zsh – Rename Files in Lexicographical Order with Sequential Pattern

Recursive copy files with rename

Related Question