Get all mp3 files within a directory tree

[marf88]

Ok so I have a directory that I want to copy all the changed mp3 files from to another. I want it to retain folders and traverse as far down as it needs to go. Right now it only stays in the root directory. Here is my code

#!/bin/bash -vx

/bin/cp	-u -v -p -R /media/Music/*.mp3 ~/Music/ >> ~/Scripts/music_backup.log 2>&1

It only copied a single mp3 which happened to be in the Music/ directory, and didn't traverse into any sub folders. This is probably an easy answer for the pros, so thanks for your responses in advance.

[coopstah13]

2>&1

what is this for?
I'm not a shell expert, but it seems unnecessary

[daark.child]

How about using the find command along with the exec option?

find /media/Music -name "*.mp3" -exec cp -uvpR '{}' \;

I've not tested the commands above, but hopefully you'll get an idea about how to solve your problem.

[marct]

Would it not be better to use something like rsync to do this task? I am new to all this so can't help you a great deal, but I think rsync is designed for this sort of task more than running scripts.

Marc

[bigtomrodney]

How about using the find command along with the exec option?

find /media/Music -name "*.mp3" -exec cp -uvpR '{}' \;

I've not tested the commands above, but hopefully you'll get an idea about how to solve your problem.

Don't forget the destination for cp!

find /media/Music -iname *.mp3 -exec cp  '{}' ./ \;

That's if you want to copy into one directory. If you want to mirror the structure use rsync

rsync -uav /media/Music ./Music

Assuming you have a directory called Music in the current directory.

2>&1

what is this for?
I'm not a shell expert, but it seems unnecessary

This redirects all standard errors and standard outputs so there is no output to the terminal. It's probably not that useful in this case for debugging.

[wje_lf]

Quoth coopstah13:

2>&1

what is this for?

Quoth bigtomrodney:

This redirects all standard errors and standard outputs so there is no output to the terminal.

Not quite. It redirects all standard error to standard output. So far in this thread standard output and standard error are sent to the screen (I would have said "sent to the teletype" in the old days), so it has no discernable effect.

[bigtomrodney]

Not quite...

I stand corrected

[marf88]

rsync -uav /media/Music ./Music

where in this code does it specify *.mp3 only?

[bigtomrodney]

Where is my head today. Can you tell I'm in work

rsync -uav --include='*/*.mp3' --exclude='*' /media/Music ./Music

So this should exclude anything that is not an mp3 or a directory containing an mp3.

[daark.child]

Don't forget the destination for cp!

find /media/Music -iname *.mp3 -exec cp  '{}' ./ \;

Thanks for the correction. I must have been having one of those days when the brains just don't work as they should do.