Bash scanning for filenames containing keywords and move them - bash

Question

I'm looking to find a way to constantly scan a folder tree for new subfolders containing MKV/MP4 files. If that file contains a keyword and ends in MP4 or MKV, it'll be moved to a defined location matching that keyword. As a bonus, it would delete the folder and all it's leftover contents where the file resided previosly. The idea would be to have this run in the background and sort everything where it belongs and clean up after itself if possible.
example:
Media\anime\Timmy\Timmy_S1E1\Timmy_S1E1_720p.mkv #Found Keyword Timmy, allowed filetype
Move to destination:
Media\series\Timmy\
Delete subfolder:
Media\anime\Timmy\Timmy_S1E1\
I would either do separate scripts for each keyword, or, if possible, have the script match each keyword with a destination
#!/bin/bash
#!/bin/sh
#!/etc/shells/bin/bash
while true
do
shopt -s globstar
start_dir="//srv/MEDIA2/shows"
for name in "$start_dir"/**/*.*; do
# search the directory recursively
done
sleep 300
done

Answer 1

This could be done by:
creating a script that does what you want to do, once.
run the script from cron, at a certain interval. Say a couple minutes, or a couple hours, depends on the volume of files you receive.
no need for a continually running daemon.
Ex:
#!/bin/bash
start_dir="/start/directory"
if [[ ! -d "$start_dir" ]]
then
echo "ERROR: start_dir ($start_dir) not found."
exit 1
fi
target_dir="/target/directory"
if [[ ! -d "$target_dir" ]]
then
echo "ERROR: target_dir ($target_dir) not found."
exit 1
fi
# Move all MP4 and MKV files to the target directory
find "$start_dir" -type f \( -name "*keyword*.MP4" -o -name "*keyword*.MKV" \) -print0 | while read -r -d $'\0' file
do
# add any processing here...
filename=$(basename "$file")
echo "Moving $filename to $target_dir..."
mv "$file" "$target_dir/$filename"
done
# That being done, all that is left in start_dir can be deleted
find "$start_dir" -type d ! -path "$start_dir" -exec /bin/rm -fr {} \;
Details:
scanning for files is most efficient with the find command
the -print0 with read ... method is to ensure all valid filenames are processed, even if they include spaces or other "weird" characters.
the result of the above code is that each file that matches your keyword, with extensions MP4 or MKV will be processed once.
you can then use "$file" to access the file being processed in the current loop.
make sure you ALWAYS double quote $file, otherwise any weird filename will brake your code. Well you should always double quote your variables anyway.
more complex logic can be added for your specific needs. Ex. create the target directory if it does not exist. Create a different target directory depending on your keyword. etc.
to delete all sub-directories under $start_dir, I use find. Again this will process weird directory names.
One point, some will argue that it could all be done in 1 find command with -exec option. True, but IMHO the version with the while loop is easier to code, understand, debug, learn.
And this construct is good to have in your bash toolbox.
When you create a script, only one #! line is needed.
And I fixed the indentation in your question, much easier to read your code properly indented and formatted (see the edit help in the question editor).
Last point to discuss, lets say you have a LARGE number of directories and files to process, and it is possible that new files are added while the script is running. Ex. you are moving many MP4 files, and while it is doing it, new files are deposited in the directories. Then when you do the deletion you could potentially loose files.
If such a case is possible, you could add a check for new files just before you do the /bin/rm, it would help. To be absolutely certain, you could setup a script that processes 1 file, and have it triggered by inotify. But that is another ball game, more complicated and out of scope for this answer.