Shell Script – Fix mv: Cannot Stat No Such File or Directory

renameshell

I wrote a script to move some files form one folder to another folder
but I got the following error, I checked 2 folders and notice for 1 folder there are such files and another there is no such files, but why all of them shows "mv cannot stat No such files or directory"

mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/194.199.68.165_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/194.42.17.124_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/195.113.161.13_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/203.159.127.3_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/212.199.61.205_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/212.51.218.235_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/213.73.40.105_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/41.225.7.4_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/83.230.127.122_tcp.folder/data/*': No such file or directory
[esolve@kitty tcp_50x50]$ ls /home/wgong/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/194.199.68.165_tcp.folder/
[esolve@kitty tcp_50x50]$ ls /home/wgong/project/capture/tcp_50x50/dest_folder/203.159.127.3_tcp.folder/data/
129.88.70.226   132.187.230.1    138.96.116.22   155.185.54.250   192.38.109.144  193.136.227.163  193.175.135.61  195.113.161.13  83.230.127.122
130.104.72.200  132.227.62.122   147.83.29.232   156.17.10.52     192.42.43.22    193.137.173.218  193.205.215.74  212.199.61.205
131.130.69.164  132.252.152.194  148.81.140.193  157.181.175.249  192.43.193.71   193.144.21.131   193.226.19.30   212.51.218.235
131.188.44.102  134.151.255.180  152.66.245.162  160.78.253.31    193.1.170.136   193.145.46.243   194.199.68.165  213.73.40.105
131.254.208.10  138.48.3.203     152.81.47.4     192.114.4.3      193.136.166.56  193.166.160.98   194.42.17.124   41.225.7.4

the script is:

list=`ls dest_folder`
cd dest_folder
cwd=`pwd`
for folder in $list;do
        mv ${cwd}/${folder}'/data/*' ${cwd}/${folder}
done

I ran it in /home/esolve/project/capture/tcp_50x50/.

Best Answer

mv ${cwd}/${folder}'/data/*' ${cwd}/${folder}

The quotes (') there prevent the shell from doing globbing. The * is being passed literally to the mv command, which fails since it doesn't find files called * in the directories indicated.

Change this to:

mv "${cwd}/${folder}/data"/* "${cwd}/${folder}"

(Double quotes to prevent problems if you ever have a directory name with spaces in it. * outside the quotes.)

You'll still get the errors for the empty directories though. (Same sort of reason: if the file doesn't find a match for the pattern, it passes the pattern itself as an argument to the command.)

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