How do I write a shell script to flatten directories?

Question

I wrote a simple script to delete useless files from a directory using the find command.

Now I'm wondering if I can add lines to the script to flatten directories, but not completely flattened.

e.g., If I have a big directory named cleantarget:

cleantarget
- Folder A
  - Folder A1
  - Folder A2
- Folder B
  - Folder B1
    - Folder B11

I want the end result to be:

cleantarget
- Folder A
- Folder B

I do NOT want the result to be:

cleantarget
- all my files

There are 16000 files in this directory, so it'd be nice to do this with a script, so I can run it occasionally when the directory gets messed up again.

How do I do this?

EDIT: In essence, this means: I want a script, that will separately flatten each sub-directory within a given target directory. i.e., flatten Folder A, flatten Folder B, and flatten Folder C, and so on until all directories within cleanfolder are flattened.

Do you mean flatten all of the directories under 'Folder A' and 'Folder B'. As in move all of the files from the subdirectories in A and B to A and B and then delete the subdirectories in A and B? — Giraffer, Jun 22 '19 at 16:56
So do you want to flatten directory A, and flatten directory B etc.? — ctrl-alt-delor, Jun 22 '19 at 16:56
@Giraffer, yes that is exactly what I mean. I want the script to flatten all subfolders within a target folder. — johnnywatts, Jun 22 '19 at 23:45
@Jesse_b, don't worry about that part. My script currently does it already. — johnnywatts, Jun 22 '19 at 23:46
@Kusalananda, yes I have checked. Everyone else wants to flatten one folder. I want to flatten all subfolders within a target folder. There can be hundreds of these subfolders. — johnnywatts, Jun 22 '19 at 23:49
@ctrl-alt-delor, yes, and then Directory C, etc. until all subfolders within cleantarget is flattened. — johnnywatts, Jun 22 '19 at 23:50
@johnnywatts: If you are already getting the files where is the issue? Do you just need to know how to use rm? — jesse_b, Jun 23 '19 at 00:05
@johnnywatts So, take any of those solutions and apply them to to each folder individually? Doesn't sound more complicated than adding a for-loop around a piece of code. — Kusalananda, Jun 23 '19 at 06:51

Giraffer · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-23T00:19:43.470

1

These lines should work:

find "/path/to/cleantarget" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d | while read line; do
    find "${line}" -mindepth 2 -type f -exec mv -t "${line}" -i '{}' +
    rm -r "${line}"/*/
done

This will flatten Folder A and Folder B, asking if you want to overwrite duplicates, and remove the folders afterwards.

Source: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/52816/284212

edited Jun 23 '19 at 00:19

answered Jun 22 '19 at 17:20

Giraffer

174

Hello, I don't think that will work.
That only scans two folders and flattens them. It doesn't proceed with other folders.
– johnnywatts Jun 22 '19 at 23:43
@johnnywatts Sorry, I didn't see your update. I only thought there were two folders. – Giraffer Jun 23 '19 at 00:07
It should work now. – Giraffer Jun 23 '19 at 00:19
My apologies, but it didn't work. I get the error "find: paths must precede expression: 'rm'" – johnnywatts Jun 23 '19 at 00:32
This works...with errors. If there are two files with the same name, it will ask to overwrite, but the file will be already deleted by the time you get the prompt. – johnnywatts Jun 23 '19 at 01:03
1

I'd recommend replacing the first find ... | while read loop with a simple for line in "/path/to/cleantarget"/*/; do. One possible downside: it won't flatten invisible subdirectories (unless you set shopt -s dotglob first). – Gordon Davisson Jun 23 '19 at 02:08

How do I write a shell script to flatten directories?

1 Answers1