[eldergod]

I am looking for some help in making directories and moving files to them. I am doing it manually and since I have tens of thousands of these files to move, I figure there must be an easier way to do it.
Here is what I have and want to do.

In one directory I have tens of thousands of .txt files named as such:

rdb-001-001.txt
rdb-001-002.txt
rdb-002-001.txt
rdb-002-002.txt
and so on.
What I want to do( and not manually ) is
mkdir rdb-001
mv rdb-001-* rdb-001
I want a script that can grab a file name, make the directory and move all corresponding files to that directory.
Any help? Pointers as to what program to use? Or is a script the best?
Thanks

[patch_linams]

Something like this should do the trick:

#!/bin/sh

DIR=""
for F in $(ls -1 *.txt); do
    D="${F%-*}"
    if [ "$DIR" != "$D" ]; then
	DIR="$D"
	mkdir -p $DIR
    fi
    mv -f "$F" "$DIR"    
done

[ghostdog74]

Originally Posted by patch_linams

Something like this should do the trick:

#!/bin/sh

DIR=""
for F in $(ls -1 *.txt); do
    D="${F%-*}"
    if [ "$DIR" != "$D" ]; then
	DIR="$D"
	mkdir -p $DIR
    fi
    mv -f "$F" "$DIR"    
done

actually, there's no need to check for existing directory since you have used -p for mkdir. Also, its better to use shell expansion, instead of ls -1 *txt when passing it to the for loop. If files has spaces in them, using ls -1 will break the for loop.

so the whole thing might be

for F in *.txt; do
    mkdir -p ${F%-*.txt}
    mv -f "$F" ${F%-*.txt}
done

[patch_linams]

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

its better to use shell expansion, instead of ls -1 *txt when passing it to the for loop. If files has spaces in them, using ls -1 will break the for loop.

Since the exact naming scheme of all files is known it won't be necessary to check for spaces in filenames. But I agree that "ls" is not needed.

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

Well, since the exact format of all files is known
so the whole thing might be

for F in *.txt; do
    mkdir -p ${F%-*.txt}
    mv -f "$F" ${F%-*.txt}
done

well, your mkdir statement will create several directories if there are spaces in filenames. You might want to add double quotation marks
This would improve both versions:

#!/bin/sh
for F in *.txt; do
    D="${F%-*.txt}"
    mkdir -p "$D"
    mv -f "$F" "$D"
done

[eldergod]

I've kind of added/tweaked a little from each reply and its working fantastic!! Actually I'm completely finished moving the files!! It sure saved me tons of work. I knew there was a reason I left Windows
Thanks to everyone who replied, I can't thank you enough for all the help.

[Hatrick]

As a very new bee in the scripting hive I prefer to google my way out of trouble whenever possible, but one line of the proposed script has me completely lost. What does:-

"${F%-*.txt}" mean?

I know what it is doing in this context, but can find no reference to "F%", or anything like it in the man pages, the numerous tutorials I have studied, nor from googling "mkdir -p ${".

Enlighten me, someone, please.

[drl]

Hi, Hatrick.

A few things are deep within man bash. Look for the heading Parameter Expansion in that man page. You'll find some interesting descriptions of % and # in such expressions.

If you wish to see some examples and references, look through http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html -- it's long, but valuable.

And, of course, there is nothing quite like experimentation.

And a pat on the back for doing your own searching first ... cheers, drl

[Hatrick]

Thanks drl. Heading for man bash, right now.