[ILUG] copying files

[John P. Looney]

On Fri, Apr 06, 2001 at 02:26:28PM +0100, Paul Askins mentioned:
> Thanks,
> 
> Colm's and Kate's method of 
> find source_dir -type f -exec cp -a {} dest_dir \;
> worked for me anyway, it stripped out all the sub directories which is what I
> needed.  Kate, why the \* after f ?  This caused problems for me giving,
> find: paths must precede expression
> works fine without anyway, thanks again,

> >     find /dir -name -type f \* -exec cp -a {} /target/dir \;

 Ah. I'd stuck in the "-type f" as an afterthought, so you wouldn't copy
in the directories etc. It should have been;


        find /dir -name \* -type f -exec cp -a {} /target/dir \;

 The star being there to show you could give a pattern (and non-GNU find
needs a pattern I think).

Kate

-- 
 When I say 'free', I mean 'free': free from bond, of chain or command: 
to go where you will, even to Mordor, Saruman, if you desire. " 
    -- Gandalf, paraphrasing the choice between Free and Non-free software