Run shell script for every file in directory

Question

I have a bunch of files in a directory all named YYYY_MM_DD

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 480K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_05
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 483K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_06
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 484K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_07
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 480K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_08
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 344K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_09
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  66K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_10
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 461K Apr 21 13:17 2012_04_11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 475K Apr 21 15:09 2012_04_17
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 480K Apr 21 15:10 2012_04_18
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 474K Apr 21 15:10 2012_04_19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 474K Apr 21 15:10 2012_04_20

I have a shell script that accepts a file as a paramater and calculates figures based on the data in the file, i call the script like this

sh Calculate.sh MyFile

I want to run this shell script for every file in this directory.

How would i go about doing this, xargs ??

The `find` command will probably be a good start. Here are a few resources on it: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Find.html and http://mywiki.wooledge.org/UsingFind (gets much more complicated, but worth a look at some point). — Telemachus, Apr 21 '12 at 14:51

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 21 '12 at 14:52

7

Have you tried the find command with execution ?

My sample will echo the files, but you can call a shell script with the filename as a parameter

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec echo {} \;

edited Apr 21 '12 at 14:52

Telemachus

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answered Apr 21 '12 at 14:49

MrJames

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This is cool, but how would i pass them files to my Calculate.sh script in order ??? – general exception Apr 21 '12 at 17:27
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Ok.. in that case you need to sort out all the files before calling the script. Try something like this `find . -maxdepth 1 -type f | sort | xargs -I '{}' Calculate.sh '{}'` – MrJames Apr 21 '12 at 17:51
I understand the command upto xargs, i understand that sort pipes the data into xargs, what is the -I switch and why is there two of '{}' ?? Many thanks. – general exception Apr 21 '12 at 18:11
When using `-I` you can specify a replace-string. The `'{}'` on `find` command represents the current filename returned, but on `xargs` it doesn't have a special meaning because you can run the script with `find . -maxdepth 1 -type f | sort | xargs -I 'recei_param' echo 'recei_param'` and the output will be the same. You can check more details at [man xargs](http://linux.die.net/man/1/xargs) – MrJames Apr 22 '12 at 12:25

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 18 '13 at 19:26

6

A simple for loop in the shell:

for file in *; do sh Calculate.sh "$file"; done

edited Dec 18 '13 at 19:26

Joe

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answered Apr 21 '12 at 18:36

glenn jackman

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Wouldn't this also run it on itself if Calculate.sh was in the same directory? – ale10ander Jun 20 '15 at 03:16
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yes it would. To avoid that, with bash, to loop over all files *not* named Calculate.sh: `shopt extglob nullglob; for file in !(Calculate.sh)` – glenn jackman Jun 20 '15 at 13:59

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 21 '12 at 15:01

1

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs -n 1 -I % Calculate.sh %

answered Apr 21 '12 at 15:01

Dagang

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 22 '12 at 12:33

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./Calculate.sh 2012_04_{05..20}

answered Apr 22 '12 at 12:33

user unknown

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Run shell script for every file in directory

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