How to extract a specifically named folder from a recursive directory, delete the others

directorydirectory-structuremvrecursive

I have this kind of directory tree that is obtained from unzipping a zip file:

x -> y -> z -> run -> FILES AND DIRECTORIES HERE

So there are 4 directories, 3 of whom are empty of files (x, y, z) and only contain 1 sub-directory, and there is the directory I am interested in, named "run".

I want to move the "run" directory itself (including everything within) to the "root" location where I unzipped (i.e. where "x" is, but not inside "x").

Assumptions: There exists a folder named "run", but I do not know how many directories I will have to "cd" to get to it (could be 3 (x,y,z), could be 10 or more. The names are also unknown and do not have to be x,y,z etc).

How can I accomplish this? I tried many variations of this question but they all failed.

Best Answer

what about

  find . -type d -name run -exec mv {} /path/to/X \;

where

/path/to/X is your destination directory
you start from this same place.
then use other answer to remove empty directories.

(on a side note there is a --junk-paths option in zip, either when zipping or unzipping)

Related Solutions

Shell – How to Remove All Sub-Directories from a Directory

In BASH you can use the trailing slash (I think it should work in any POSIX shell):

rm -R -- */

Note the -- which separates options from arguments and allows one to remove entries starting with a hyphen - otherwise after expansion by the shell the entry name would be interpreted as an option by rm (the same holds for many other command line utilities).

Add the -f option if you don't want to be prompted for confirmation when deleting non-writeable files.

Note that by default, hidden directories (those whose name starts with .) will be left alone.

An important caveat: the expansion of */ will also include symlinks that eventually resolve to files of type directory. And depending on the rm implementation, rm -R -- thelink/ will either just delete the symlink, or (in most of them) delete the content of the linked directory recursively but not that directory itself nor the symlink.

If using zsh, a better approach would be to use a glob qualifier to select files of type directory only:

rm -R -- *(/) # or *(D/) to include hidden ones

or:

rm -R -- *(-/)

to include symlinks to directories (but because, this time, the expansion doesn't have trailing /s, it's the symlink only that is removed with all rm implementations).

With bash, AT&T ksh, yash or zsh you can do:

set -- */
rm -R -- "${@%/}"

to strip the trailing /.

Shell – How to condense subdirectories

find is the solution:

find /srcpath -type f -exec mv {} /dstpath \;

or better, if your mv has the -t destination-dir option:

find /srcpath -type f -exec mv -t /dstpath {} +

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Shell – How to Remove All Sub-Directories from a Directory

Shell – How to condense subdirectories

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