cp files _except_ few files

[saivin]

Hi,
I'm sorry if this sound like a homework question. But I could not find a way on my own. My question is, is it possible to copy files 'except' few files. i.e., say we have 26 files name them a, b, c, d... z. If I want to copy all these files from one directory to another except perhaps k, q, r, z.

One answer that came little close is this: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ly/088731.html But for some reason it is not the solution I want.

The same this may apply to mv command too.

Does anybody know how to do this?

[Rubberman]

cp [^kqrz]* dest-dir

This will copy all but files that start with the letters (lower-case) k, q, r, and z to the destination directory (dest-dir).

[vickey_20]

ok here's what you do
do a listing of the all the files and place them in a copy file

ls >copy

now file copy will contain all the files. Open it up and delete the one's you don't want to copy and issue this command

cp $(ll |grep -v PATTERN copy) destination/

The solution pointed out by rubberman is nice but in case there are files with almost same name say K1 and K2 and only K2 need to be copied then removing K1 from the copy file will do the work

[saivin]

Sorry guys, for two reasons:
1. For not replying to you for this long
2. Both methods don't work (or don't serve my purpose)

Rubberman,
Thats a regular expression involving caret, isn't it? Damn me... Ok, it works but not the way I want. I wanted to leave not a file 'starting' with a character, but any file name I give. For eg: I did

mkdir test test1
touch test/{1,2,3,4,435,s39,5,6}
cp test/[^34]* test1/
ls test1
1  2  5  6  s39
bash-3.1$

I actually wanted to copy all files except 3 and 4.

Vickey,
What is that 'll'? is that 'long list' which is alias for 'ls -l'? And what is that PATTERN? I tried as below:

bash-3.1$ cp $(ls | grep -v s39 ~/test.txt) test1/  
cp: cannot stat `1': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `2': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `3': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `4': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `435': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `5': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `6': No such file or directory
bash-3.1$

Again my intention was to copy all files except s39.

I tried with 'cat' instead of 'll' and also fed test.txt to 'cat' instead of to 'grep'. Like this:

bash-3.1$ cat ~/test.txt | grep -v s39
1
2
3
4
435
5
6

It works but if use 'cp' along with this I get error as,

bash-3.1$ cp $(cat ~/test.txt | grep -v s39) test1/
cp: cannot stat `1': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `2': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `3': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `4': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `435': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `5': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `6': No such file or directory
bash-3.1$

What does 'cannot stat' mean? Btw, how to have multiple files in this PATTERN?

[ProgramIt]

I would try Rubberman's code again. It did exactly what you wanted it to do for me

#!/bin/bash

cp files/[^kqrz]* moved

I had these files in a directory (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) and after I ran the script only these files where in the new directory (a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p s t u v w x y).

- John

[vickey_20]

What is that 'll'? is that 'long list' which is alias for 'ls -l'? 
And what is that PATTERN? I tried as below:

yes

ll is equivalent to ls -l
it is a alias with comes predefined in Red Hat Linux

try the suggestion exactly as mentioned
here you go
1) make a file called 'copy' which contains the list of all file by using. You must be present in the directory form where you want to copy to some destination

ls >copy

2)now file copy will contain all the files. Open it up and delete the one's you don't want to copy
3)now you are ready with the files u want to copy, issue this command

cp $(ll |grep -v PATTERN copy) destination/

PATTERN keyword will search the file 'copy'  and see what all to copy

Though its a long procedure but will copy exactly the pattern it matches
If you want to shorten it you may give file name in the copy files with '*' after the name
For example if you wan to copy K11 K12 K13 but not K3 then
make an entry in the 'copy' file like this

K1*

[vickey_20]

mkdir test test1
touch test/{1,2,3,4,435,s39,5,6}
cp test/[^34]* test1/
ls test1
1  2  5  6  s39
bash-3.1$

I actually wanted to copy all files except 3 and 4. [/CODE]
In this case edit the copy file to have these contents

the copy file
-----------------------------------------------------
[^34]* #this will copy 1 2 5 6 s39
435    #this one overrides the ^3 option mentioned above
s39    # Dito

It worked out for me

[saivin]

I would try Rubberman's code again. It did exactly what you wanted it to do for me

#!/bin/bash

cp files/[^kqrz]* moved

I had these files in a directory (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) and after I ran the script only these files where in the new directory (a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p s t u v w x y).

- John

No, it worked for you coz you have used one-character files. Use it with multiple character files. Or preferably try on the file names given by me. For me it not only omitted 3 and 4 but also 435, which is not what I wanted.

[saivin]

...
try the suggestion exactly as mentioned
here you go
1) make a file called 'copy' which contains the list of all file by using. You must be present in the directory form where you want to copy to some destination

ls >copy

2)now file copy will contain all the files. Open it up and delete the one's you don't want to copy
3)now you are ready with the files u want to copy, issue this command

cp $(ll |grep -v PATTERN copy) destination/

PATTERN keyword will search the file 'copy' and see what all to copy.

What's the point of exclude pattern -v then? If I have to delete files which I don't want to copy from the 'copy' file I can very well 'rm' or 'mv' those files from the directory itself and then use regular ' cp test/* test1/ ', right?

Though its a long procedure but will copy exactly the pattern it matches
If you want to shorten it you may give file name in the copy files with '*' after the name
For example if you wan to copy K11 K12 K13 but not K3 then
make an entry in the 'copy' file like this

K1*

No, it does not work.

saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ ls test >copy
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cat copy
1
2
3
4
435
5
6
k11
k12
k13
k3
s39
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cp $(ls -l | grep -v k1* copy) test1/
cp: cannot stat `1': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `2': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `3': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `4': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `435': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `5': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `6': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `s39': No such file or directory
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ ls test1
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ 
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cat copy 
1
2
3
4
435
5
6
k11
k12
k13
k3
s39
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ vi copy 
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cat copy
1
2
3
4
435
5
6
s39

I removed k1* here.

saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cp $(ls -l | grep -v k1* copy) test1/
cp: cannot stat `1': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `2': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `3': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `4': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `435': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `5': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `6': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `s39': No such file or directory
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ ls test1
saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $

Probably I'm not clear. See I have bunch of files in a directory. I want to copy all the files except few files. They need not have pattern like you said (eg. k1*). They can be completely different files like 'report.xls', 'fsflogo.png', 's39'. Now, how do I exclude these files from the group I'm copying to other folder. Forget about a bunch of different files, its not working for even one file. Try,

mkdir test test1
touch test/{1,2,3,4,k11,k12,s39}
ls test > copy
cp $(ll | grep -v s39 copy) test1/

I'm trying here to copy each file in test/ except file named s39.

I think there is some thing wrong with '$()'. Your logic seems correct though. We are trying to copy the output of bunch of commands inside $() to destination. But '$()' is not giving correct output to 'cp' or 'cp' is not accepting it.

[vickey_20]

saivin@sv-gentoo ~ $ cp $(ls -l | grep -v k1* copy) test1/

My friend for a minute I would ask you to take off you thinking cap and do it the way I have shown. Why in the world are you replacing the keyword "PATTERN" with manual code. ____LET____ it remain like that , if you have some doubt please see the man page of grep there you will see the _____Keyword______ "PATTERN".



Now here wat I did

vickey@vickey-laptop:~$ mkdir test test1
vickey@vickey-laptop:~$ touch test/{1,2,3,4,k11,k12,s39}
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ ls >copy
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ ls
1  2  3  4  copy  k11  k12  s39
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ #Now open the copy file 
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ vi copy 
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ cat copy
[^34]
s39
k*
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ cp $(ls -l | grep -v PATTERN copy) ../test1/
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test$ cd ../test1
vickey@vickey-laptop:~/test1$ ls
1  2  k11  k12 s39

Now the final directory doesn't contain files '3','4' as wanted.
I hope this one clears it finally as I have given each step in systematic order.