I recently exported the HDD on my panasonic camera to my notebook and noticed that the video files weren't ordered by name, but by their parent directory and said parent directory was clouded with a bunch of miscellaneous files.
To put things into perspective, the directory tree looks something like this:
\Panasonic
\PRG00A
\PRG00B
...
\PRG069
Panasonic is located inside a bunch of folders, hence why I would like to put my batch file alongside \Panasonic. And have it work relatively to its location.
So basically I want to create a batch file move.bat, which shall traverse the subdirectories of \Panasonic and move out any video files (with extension .MOD to simplify things) and afterwards delete the parent directory (e.g. \PRG00B).
The result would be that the \Panasonic directory only includes video files instead of sub-directories with a bunch of rubbish.
What I've got so far (keep in mind that this is my first batch script, and I haven't even tested it fully). The choice to continue doesn't work, by the way. Not sure why, though.
#echo off
cls
set dirName=%~dp0Panasonic
goto question
:start
goto move
goto end
:move
for /D %%G in ("%cd%") do (
for %%I in ("%%G") do (
if %%I equ "*.MOD" (
move /Y %%I %dirName%
)
)
rmdir /s /q %%G
)
:end
echo Done.
pause
endlocal
exit
:question
set /P c="Are you sure you want to proceed with moving video files from %dirName%? [Y/N]"
if /I %c% equ 'y' (
echo Moving files...
goto start
) else (
goto end
)
Once again, this is my first time creating a batch file, so any help is much appreciated!
you are almost there, but just need to fix a couple of things, very easy to fix, in fact, you just need to simplify a lot your code.
Just in three simple steps
Step 1. To loop over all the directories you already had it right, your friend is for /d
for /d %%a in (*) do echo %%a
Step 2. To move all the .mod files in each of the directories found, to its parent directory or one directory up in the hierarchy, that happens to be the current directory, you just need to
move %%a\*.mod .
don't use /y option, so it will not overwrite existing files already moved to the parent directory (You will have the opportunity the check the results later. Keep reading)
Step 3. And finally, remove the directory,
rd %%a
but don't use /s, so it will only work it the directory is empty, that is, if you have successfully moved out all of the files it contained. This way you can then browse thru them to see what is left without losing any data.
So, your moveupallmod.bat becomes simply
#echo off
for /d %%a in (*) do (
move "%%a\*.mod" .
rd "%%a"
)
and that's all!
Every month I have a very large number of files (in many subfolders) in a particular folder. I need to move them all into a different folder. In an attempt to automate the process of moving them I used robocopy in a batch file. It works fine, but takes HOURS to run. (It is many many GB).
Now, if I do it manually in Windows Explorer, by opening said folder, selecting all, and right-dragging to destination folder, and choosing "Move Here", it moves INSTANTLY. (Windows XP must be pruning and grafting the directory entries, without ever making a second copy of the files. ... and yes, source and destination are on same partition.)
So, QUESTION IS: Does anyone know of a program I can run from a batch file to move files in this instantaneous way? (need to move entire sub-folder tree)
You can use MOVE for this:
C:\>MOVE /?
Moves files and renames files and directories.
To move one or more files:
MOVE [/Y | /-Y] [drive:][path]filename1[,...] destination
To rename a directory:
MOVE [/Y | /-Y] [drive:][path]dirname1 dirname2
[drive:][path]filename1 Specifies the location and name of the file
or files you want to move.
destination Specifies the new location of the file. Destination
can consist of a drive letter and colon, a
directory name, or a combination. If you are moving
only one file, you can also include a filename if
you want to rename the file when you move it.
[drive:][path]dirname1 Specifies the directory you want to rename.
dirname2 Specifies the new name of the directory.
/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to
overwrite an existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite
an existing destination file.
The switch /Y may be present in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line. Default is
to prompt on overwrites unless MOVE command is being executed from
within a batch script.
For example:
C:\Users\test>mkdir to
C:\Users\test>move from\*.txt to
C:\Users\test\from\1.txt
C:\Users\test\from\2.txt
2 file(s) moved.
With a point in the right direction from #psmears, and a lot of googling, I found the (or a) solution:
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
REM ** Change to source dir
L:
cd "L:\Backups\Source"
REM ** Move files recursively
for /R %%G in (.) do (
set mydir=%%G
set mynewdir=!mydir:~18!
md "L:\DEST\!mynewdir!"
cd "L:\DEST\!mynewdir!"
move "%%G\*.*" .
)
REM ** Remove now-empty sub-dir structure inside source
L:
cd "L:\Backups\Source"
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%d in (`"dir /ad/b/s | sort /R"`) do rd "%%d"
I need to create a .bat that runs through a multilayered directory... copying certain files that contain the following suffix: '.full.jpg' to save as '.jpg'
What I've tried:
copy /y "C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\*.full.jpg" "C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\*.jpg"
However, I cannot get it to work.
The .bat is located in the 'maindir' directory and ran from the terminal (cmd).
Here's an example scenario that maps closely to mine:
Existing Files:
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture3.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\picturea.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\pic1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\foto.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\photo.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\b\pic1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\c\pi2.full.jpg
Example Output Wanted:
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture1.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture3.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\a\picture3.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\picturea.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\picturea.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\pic1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\a\b\pic1.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\foto.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\foto.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\photo.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\a\photo.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\b\pic1.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\b\pic1.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\c\pi2.full.jpg
C:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir\b\c\pi2.jpg
I'd appreciate any help towards this as I haven't been able to do it yet. I will run across a directory structure whereby the top level directory will contain 15+ directories and each containing 20+ directories with 100+ files in each lowest directory.
Thanks.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET "sourcedir=u:\Users\myname\Desktop\maindir"
FOR /r "%sourcedir%" %%a IN (*.full.jpg) DO (
FOR %%b IN ("%%~dpna") DO ECHO(COPY "%%a" "%%~dpnb.jpg"
)
GOTO :EOF
The inner for examines the drive-path-name only of the complete filename in %%a (ie. it drops the .jpg) and delivers the drive-path-name of that name (ie. drops the .full) to which you add .jpg and job done.
You would need to change the setting of sourcedir to suit your circumstances.
The required COPY commands are merely ECHOed for testing purposes. After you've verified that the commands are correct, change ECHO(COPY to COPY to actually copy the files.
I'm totally unfamiliar with batch files but I'm pretty sure I need one for the task at hand:
I want to run pdfcrop for all the files in a particular directory and store the cropped files in a new directory. New directory is called 'croppedfiles' and if it doesn't already exist in the location where the pdfs are stored then such a directory is created and the output files are stored there.
I'd like the output files to have the same name as old files with the addition of '_cpp' at the end.
syntax for pdfcrop is just pdfcrop input.pdf output.pdf
Referring to the poor material you provided for this question - I mean only your for cycle quotation - I can only suggest a pair of tips: first you can narrow the group of files on which the for cycle is going to work, using a piped find ".pdf" command. Then you can use another nested for cycle to obtain the name of the file to be processed by pdfcrop and to set it as a variable to be used for the output path. Here is the example script:
for /f "delims=" %%g in ('dir ^"[set your desired path]^" ^| find
^".pdf^"') do ( set VAR=%%g for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=." %%m in
('!VAR!') do (mkdir "[chose your subdirectory name]" pdfcrop "!VAR!" "[subdirectory]\%%m[set
your additional characters].%%n" ) )
I hope it works, because I have been not able to test it.
I have a directory which contains files and a number of levels of subdirectories:
C:\Source
I would like to move the contents of C:\Source into:
C:\Destination
Requirements:
All files and all subdirectories
within C:\SourceData must be moved
I will be running the command in a
batch file
I can't use Powershell or
any other scripting languages
Attempt 0
XCOPY /E "C:\Source" "C:\Destination"
This works perfectly, but it copies instead of moves. I can't copy then delete the source as I'm moving a very large set of files and there isn't enough disk space to have two copies of them at a time.
Attempt 1
MOVE "C:\Source" "C:\Destination"
This moves the entire C:\Source directory into C:\Destination so I end up with:
C:\Destination\Source
Attempt 2
With some help from this question and accepted answer I came up with:
for /r "C:\Source" %%x in (*) do move "%%x" "C:\Destination"
This moves the files within C:\Source but not the subdirectories or their contents. Note that I used %%x instead of %x as I'm using it in a batch file.
Using FOR seems promising but I'm not sure I've used the right syntax? Have I missed something?
Attempt 3
As suggested by Nick D, I tried rename:
RENAME "C:\Source" Destination
For the example scenario I gave this works fine. Unfortunately my real Destination directory is at a different level to the Source directory and this doesn't seem to be supported:
C:\>REN /?
Renames a file or files.
RENAME [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.
REN [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.
Note that you cannot specify a new drive or path for your destination file.
I get "The syntax of the command is incorrect." errors if I try to specify a more complex destination path, for example:
RENAME "C:\Source" "C:\MyOtherDirectory\Destination"
RENAME "C:\Source" "MyOtherDirectory\Destination"
Undoubtedly use robocopy. It is a simple but brilliantly useful tool.
robocopy /move /e sourcedir destdir
This will move all the files and folders, including empty ones, deleting each original file after it has moved it.
If you don't have robocopy installed you can download it by itself or as part of a Microsoft resource kit.
Update:
Adjusted code to a. check whether folders already exist at the destination, in which case move files in that folder over (and continue traversing the source directory structure), otherwise move the folder wholesale.
At the end of the script the source folder is removed altogether to eliminate these folders which have had their files moved over to an already existent folder at the destination (meaning these folders have been emptied but not deleted at the source).
Additionally we check whether a folder is both empty and already exists at the destination in which case we do nothing (and leave the source folder to be deleted to the last line of the script). Not doing this results in "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." errors.
Phew! Please let me know how you get on with this! I have tested this and it seems to be working well.
for /d /r "c:\source" %%i in (*) do if exist "c:\destination\%%~ni" (dir "%%i" | find "0 File(s)" > NUL & if errorlevel 1 move /y "%%i\*.*" "c:\destination\%%~ni") else (move /y "%%i" "c:\destination")
move /y c:\source\*.* c:\destination
rd /s /q c:\source
In response to ufukgun's answer:
xcopy C:\Source\* C:\Destination\* /s /e /i /Y
/s - Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
/e - Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.
/i - If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory.
/y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file.
As stated in another answer, using xcopy may be not as efficient as it would be a native move command that only changes pointers in the filesystem.
Since XCOPY works, you could use XCOPY and DELETE, it's a workaround, but should work?
on Vista use
robocopy source destination /MIR
/MIR .. mirror a complete directory tree (also deletes files in the destination)
else
xcopy
Of course you have to delete the source afterwards :)
I have a directory which contains
files and a number of levels of
subdirectories:
C:\Source
I would like to move the contents of
C:\Source into:
C:\Destination
Maybe I'm missing something, but can't you just rename the folder?
As sent on twitter:
Try combining attempt 3 with attempt 1. Rename to get the destination folder correct, then move "Destination" to the correct place.
#echo on
set SOURCE=C:\Source
set DESTINATION=C:\Destination
xcopy %SOURCE%\* %DESTINATION%\* /s /e /i /Y
PAUSE
i use batch file like this...
or simply call:
xcopy C:\Source\* C:\Destination\* /s /e /i /Y
I use a utility called xxcopy. It can move files and have many useful options, you can use it like this :
xxcopy C:\Source C:\Destination /E /RC
the options :
/E to copy everything even empty folders
/RC to remove every source file after each successful copy
you can download free copy of xxcopy for personal use from :
http://www.xxcopy.com/xcpydnld.htm
Maybe a little off-topic, but still usefull:
Some people suggest to just copy + delete the source files, but
moving files is not the same as copying + deleting!
When using the (x)copy function, you allocate new space on the same volume on a harddisk. After the copying the files, the old files (the old allocated space which was required for the files) are beign marked as deleted. While you will achieve the same result as an end-user, moving does something diffrent and more efficient.
Moving files actually only changes some records in the MFT (master file table). These changes only consist of a different path for the user to locate its files. Physically the files still remain in the same sectors on the harddisk.
If all your trying to do is move a directory and the content up one level:
MOVE folder_you_wan_to_move ..
Note that .. refers to the next directory up.
I leave this code I have written based on ljs's attempt,
It moves directory trees as Windows does, overwriting the files that already exists in destination with those in source, and avoiding the slow copy and erase method except if the destination is in a different drive.
If your S.O is not in english must change line 6 with the text used by the Dir command when it finds 0 files.
movedir.bat source_dir destination_dir
#echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
if %1.==. echo movedir dir1[\*] dir2 & echo move dir1 inside dir2 overwriting coincident files & echo option \* moves only dir1 content & goto end
set S=%~f1
set D=%~f2
set "noFiles= 0 File"
set "R=0" rem R is option [\*] flag
if %S:~-2%.==\.. set "S=%S:~,-2%" & set "R=1"
if not exist "%S%" goto paramERR
if not exist "%D%" goto paramERR
set "Trim=0" & set "Sc=%S%"
:LP
set /A Trim+=1 & (set "Sc=!Sc:~1!") & if NOT !Sc!.==. goto LP
if %R%==0 (if exist "%D%\%~n1%~x1" (set "D=%D%\%~n1%~x1")) else move /y "%S%" "%D%" & goto end
CALL:movefiles "%S%" "%D%"
for /D /R "%S%" %%I in (*) do (set "Way=%%~fI") & (set "Way=!Way:~%Trim%!") & if exist "%D%!Way!" (CALL:movefiles "%%I" "%D%!Way!") else (move /y "%%I" "%D%!Way!\.." > NUL)
rd /s/q "%S%" & if %R%==1 md "%S%"
goto end
:movefiles
dir %1 | find "%noFiles%" > NUL & if ERRORLEVEL 1 move /y "%~1\*.*" %2 > NUL
goto :eof
:paramERR
echo Source or Destination does not exist
:end
I think the easiest thing you could do is to modify your Attempt 2
from
MOVE "C:\Source" "C:\Destination"
to
MOVE "C:\Source\*" "C:\Destination"
KISS ;-)
Edit: this seem not to work, so my advice is to trash away the crappy DOS command line and use Cygwin with BASH as a shell! (or just add the cygwin binaries to the path so you can use mv within DOS, thus not having to change the shell as your requirements state).