Ok, I'm wondering if BASH can do this:

[Agent-X]

I have a lot of files. All of these files are in numerical order. They go from

1.txt to 1000.txt
So, as you could figure, there is 165.txt and 954.txt somewhere in the middle.
I simply have 1000 files and all are named accordingly with a numerical position.

I want to create a script. This script grabs files 165.txt through 953.txt and put them in folder labeled texts1.

How do I create a script that does that?

For what I know, I would have to create a script listing all files I want to collect and move. To create a script like that would be very, very time consuming. Is there a way to say, "Grab files 165 through 953, and move them to this folder"? Is there a way to do that with perhaps 1 or 2 lines of code? Three? Something under 20?

I eventually want to say, "Ok, now grab 1 through 164 and put them here. Good, now put 954 through 1000 and put them here."
Afterwards, I might go to a different folder and choose a large collection of different, numerically ordered files to place in different folders.

How do I create a script to do what I want?
I'm totally new to bash (BASH?) and its ways.
I'm more familiar with DOS, because I grew up with it since the 90s.
I've read bash can do things Windows and DOS can't do.
Can bash do what I want?

[Franklin52]

mv $(ls *.txt|sort -n|sed -n '165,953p') texts1

Regards

[Agent-X]

mv $(ls *.txt|sort|sed -n '165,953p') texts1

Alright, cool. Thank you very much. I'm wondering how you figured this out and knew it. Is there a place I could learn how to build a command like that?

Also, why did you put a p after the 953 in "953p"? Does it create some kind of end mark?

[Franklin52]

Sorry, this line:

mv $(ls *.txt|sort|sed -n '165,953p') texts1

must be:

mv $(ls *.txt|sort -n|sed -n '165,953p') texts1

I forgot to note that I've edit that.
Next I'll explain the code.

Regards

[Franklin52]

ls *.txt --> list all files that match *.txt

sort -n --> nummeric sort

sed -n --> print only files that match the pattern

165,953p --> print lines 1 - 953

Regards

[Cabhan]

The best resource for learning how to do stuff like this is:
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

Also, as you start using these, you'll learn how powerful some commands can be. sed can do amazing things, and awk is essentially its own programming language.

[ghostdog74]

I'm totally new to bash (BASH?) and its ways.

since you are totally new, then let's go step by step

for ((num=165; num <= 953 ; num++))  
do
  if [ -f "$num.txt" ];then
    mv $num.txt $somewhere
  fi
done

[Agent-X]

Hmm, I've been reading about sed. To be honest, I gave .txt files for examples. I'm not really editing text files at all. I'm using a different type of extension. Imagine if it were .avi.

Does that make much of a difference?
After reading about sed, it looks like some type of text editor, which could cause problems because I'm not editing text files. I simple said text files as an example file type.

[ghostdog74]

Hmm, I've been reading about sed. To be honest, I gave .txt files for examples. I'm not really editing text files at all. I'm using a different type of extension. Imagine if it were .avi.

Does that make much of a difference?
After reading about sed, it looks like some type of text editor, which could cause problems because I'm not editing text files. I simple said text files as an example file type.

sed is a stream editor. It doesn't "edit" your file while its going through it. only when you tell it to, like using > to redirect to a file, or using -i option (in place ) in gnu sed, then sed will change your file. learn what the bash shell built-in commands can do for you, before learning tools like sed/awk/grep/sort/paste/cut etc etc...

[devils casper]

I eventually want to say, "Ok, now grab 1 through 164 and put them here. Good, now put 954 through 1000 and put them here."
Afterwards, I might go to a different folder and choose a large collection of different, numerically ordered files to place in different folders.

#!/bin/bash

for num in `seq $1 $2`  
do
  if [ -f "$num.txt" ];then
    mv $num.txt $3
  fi
done
echo "its done"

save this script as 'mv_files.sh' or whatever name you want to assign.

* move files 45 - 170 to folder new_files.

execute like this

sh mv_files.sh 45 170 new_files

assign any sequence, any folder name. pass correct Path of folder.
replace .txt in script with any other extension.

HTH,
Casper