How to indicate all files in all subdirectories in unix shell?

Question

I'm using Max OS X. I'm trying to copy all header files (.h) to specific directory (./aaa) from all subdirectories in source directory. (./src/) This command worked well.

cp ./src/*/*.h ./aaa

But I want to copy all header files in the subdirectories in all depths. Not only 1st depth. Is this possible and how to do this? I believe there is an elegant way to do this.

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 23 '10 at 03:46

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find /src -name '*.h' -print0 | xargs -0 cp --target-directory=./aaa

(Performs significantly better than -exec for large numbers of files)

answered Jun 23 '10 at 03:46

Slartibartfast

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Or you could just use `-exec ... +`. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jun 23 '10 at 03:52
Perhaps. I grew up when that wasn't an option. I also object to silly quoting rules that seem to be in place for -exec commands. Finally, xargs is an excellent unix-y tool that everyone should be aware of. For example, it lets you do things like ensure that you have three processes running (each having 4 files to handle) at all times while you have the input to work with (taking advantage of mulitple CPUs for e.g. encoding audio files) – Slartibartfast Jun 24 '10 at 02:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 23 '10 at 02:51

2

find ./src -name '*.h' -exec cp {} ./aaa \;

answered Jun 23 '10 at 02:51

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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How to indicate all files in all subdirectories in unix shell?

2 Answers2