how to move folders with a loop over folders (in batch)? - windows

Situation:
I try to move files inside a loop in shell but my code is not working.
for /D %%F in (*) do (
if "%%F" NEQ "%directoryToPutFilesIn%" (
move /y "%%F" "%directoryToPutFilesIn%"
)
)
After hours of testing it, I realized it's because %%F is pointing to the folder, hence the file cannot be moved.
Bad solution:
The way I made it work and confirmed my suspicions is by saving the value of %%F in another variable and using that variable on next turn to move the file. Note, what is following needs an initialisation of %precedentFile% for the first turn.
for /D %%F in (*) do (
move /y "%precedentFile%" "%directoryToPutFilesIn%"
if "%%F" NEQ "%directoryToPutFilesIn%" (
move /y "%%F" "%directoryToPutFilesIn%"
set precedentFile=%%F
)
Problem:
This solution is not practical and feels wrongs. Is there a way to adapt my current code to do it, or simply another way?

Try below code to move files from one folder to another in batch script:
for /f %%a in ('dir /a:-D /b') do move /Y "%%~fa" "%directoryToPutFilesIn%"
Explanation :
dir /a:-D /b : This command will list all files in the directory
move /Y "%%~fa" "%directoryToPutFilesIn%" : This will move all files in the directory where this command is executed to the destination you have mentioned.
%%~fa : This command will get full qualified path of the file with it's name.
Try Below code Move directories :
Below command will move directories in the Path where this command is executed to the destination provided. In this that will be H:\ Drive, Change it accordingly
for /D %%b in (*) do move /Y "%%~fb" "H:\"

Related

File name and extension lost during move -cmd

This little code moves folders into subfolders ( by the way I found this here on stackowerflow. thanks :) ). I added some other functions and it works nicely except one part. See below the code, the problematic part is the last part here.
I wanna search for .txt files in the folders and move them up right under the parent directory (this part is working). But unfortunately the files lost their extensions and also their name changes to the name of the parent dir. You can see it on the attached image (I copied not moved the file there):
#echo on
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "ROOT_FOLDER=C:\Users\xy\Desktop\folder"
:: For each folder in root folder
cd "%ROOT_FOLDER%"
for /D %%a in (*) do (
cd "%%a"
:: Move all existent folders into "XY" folder
for /F "delims=" %%b in ('dir /B /A:D') do (
md XY 2> NUL
move "%%b" "XY\%%b"
)
:: Move all existent files into "XY" folder
md XY 2> NUL
move *.* XY
:: Move txt files under parent folder
for /R "XY" %%m in (*.txt) do move "\\?\%%m" "%%a"
cd ..
)
pause
Can you help what I'm messing up here?
Ok, meanwhile I figured it finally.
The %%a was the problem. The program needs the full path to move the file correctly:
for /R "XY" %%m in (*.txt) do move "\\?\%%m" "%ROOT_FOLDER%\%%a"

How can I move specific files from multiple subfolders to their respective parent folder? (Windows batch)

I have the following file and folder structure (using real names):
Carabidae/Pterostichinae/FolderNameXXX/dor/StackXXX/files.tif
My problem is that I need to get one specific file, PM*.*, from the StackXXX folders into their respective /dor parent folders. The StackXXX folder can then be deleted.
There are hundreds of FolderName. Ideally I would like a batch file I can run from the Carabidae folder.
This needs to be a batch file because there will be new FolderNames added constantly.
After a lot of searching, I found a semi-working solution from this StackOverflow answer:
for /f "delims==" %%i in ('dir /a:d /b') do for /f "delims==" %%f in ('dir %%i /a:d /b') do (move "%%i\%%f\PM*.*" "%%i"&&rd "%%i\%%f" /s /q)
It moves the file and deletes the folder, just as I want. But the problem is that it only works when run from a FolderName folder, which defeats the time-saving purpose of the script. I don't know how to modify it to recurse into subfolders so I can run it from the top folder.
Thank you very much for any help!
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET "sourcedir=u:\Carabidae"
FOR /f "tokens=1*delims=" %%a IN (
'dir /b /s /a-d "%sourcedir%\pm*.*" '
) DO IF EXIST "%%a" (
FOR %%p IN ("%%~dpa..\.") DO IF /i "%%~nxp"=="dor" (
ECHO %%a|FINDSTR /i "\\dor\\Stack" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
ECHO MOVE /y "%%~dpa\pm*.*" "%%~dpa..\"
ECHO RD /s /q "%%~dpa"
)
)
)
GOTO :EOF
You would need to change the setting of sourcedir to suit your circumstances.
Find all of the pm*.* files, filenames to %%a
Ensure the parent directory is dor and ensure that \dor\stack\ is in the path. If so, move the file(s) and remove the directory.
The if exist gate ensure no hiccoughs if a target directory contains more than one pm*.* file.
The required MOVE commands are merely ECHOed for testing purposes. After you've verified that the commands are correct, change ECHO(MOVE to MOVE to actually move the files. Append >nul to suppress report messages (eg. 1 file moved)
The required RD commands are merely ECHOed for testing purposes. After you've verified that the commands are correct, change ECHO(RD to RD to actually delete the directories.
Add >nul at the end of the move command to suppress the move-report if required.
As usual, I'd suggest you test against a representative subtree first.
Here is a possible solution, given that only the XXX parts in your path sample are variable:
rem // Enumerate `FolderName*` directories:
for /D %%R in ("Carabidae\Pterostichinae\FolderName*") do (
rem // Enumerate `Stack*` sub-directories within `dor` sub-directories:
for /F "delims= eol=|" %%D in ('dir /B /A:D "%%~R\dor\Stack*"') do (
rem // Check for `PM*.*` files in `Stack*` sub-directories:
(
rem // Enumerate `PM*.*` files:
for /F "delims= eol=|" %%F in ('dir /B /A:-D "%%~R\dor\%%D\PM*.*"') do (
rem /* Move `PM*.*` file one directory level up, overwriting
rem an already existing file, if applicable: */
ECHO move /Y "%%~R\dor\%%D\%%F" "%%~R\dor\%%F"
)
) && (
rem /* Remove `Stack*` sub-directory after file movement;
rem this is skipped if no `PM*.*` files have been found in the `Stack*`
rem sub-directory, so when the `for /F %%F` loop did never iterate: */
ECHO rd /S /Q "%%~R\dor\%%D"
)
)
)
After having successfully tested whether or not the correct items are returned, remove the upper-case ECHO commands to actually move PM*.* files and remove Stack* directories!

Copy and rename multiple files in multiple directories with windows CMD line

I want to copy and rename files that are stored in a stack of directories (year, month, day). The files are .ers files and I need them to maintain their extension but to go from file.ers to file_cloud.ers.
Then I would like the files for a given month to be saved in the cloud folder within each month.
Ideally I would do this in the Windows Command Line.
I understand a batch file is a good place to start, and so I have the following - this doesn't include saving in a different location - but I am struggling with just the copy and rename.
for /D %%y in ("C:\Data\20*") do (
pushd "%%~y"
for /D %%m in ("*") do (
pushd "%%~m"
for /D %%d in ("*") do (
pushd "%%~d"
for %%f in (soig_*.ers) do copy "%%~f.ers" "%%~f_cloud.ers"
popd
)
popd
)
popd
)
This might be easier than you are making it. If this echos the correct copy command, remove the echo. You get this by sticking your head way down into the output of FOR /?.
FOR /F "usebackq tokens=*" %%f IN (`DIR /S /B /A:-D "*.ers"`) DO (
echo COPY "%%~f" "%%~dpnf_cloud.%%~xf"
)
The following should work okay for you, (it is supposed to copy all matching .ers files with updated names to the existing cloud directory at the previous level of their tree).
#FOR /D %%Y IN ("C:\Data\20*") DO #FOR /D %%M IN ("%%Y\*"
) DO #FOR /D %%D IN ("%%M\*") DO #IF /I NOT "%%~nxD"=="cloud" FOR %%F IN (
"%%~D\soig_*.ers") DO #COPY "%%F" "%%~M\cloud\%%~nFcloud%%~xF">NUL
I have not included anything to prevent overwrites of files whose names already exist within that cloud directory

Batch to move files outside of randomly-named subfolders

I have a data set consisting of files organised according to the following hierarchical folder/subfolder structure:
I would like to remove all nuisance subfolders (move its contents outside of it at the same hierarchical level + delete the nuisance folder), thus ending up with the files organised like this:
How can I achieve this, using a batch file, run from a command prompt inside Windows 7? I've tried a number of for statements with %F and %%F, but none worked. Grateful for any tips.
I believe the following will accomplish your goal if and only if all child folder and file names are unique. If there are duplicates, then all hell will break loose.
I have not tested, so backup and/or try the code on disposable data first.
You will have to modify the first PUSHD command to point to the root where all your "person n" folders reside.
#echo off
pushd "yourRootWherePersonFoldersReside"
for /d %%U in (*) do (
pushd "%%U"
for /f "eol=: delims=" %%A in ('dir /b /ad 2^>nul') do (
for /d %%B in ("%%A\*") do (
for /d %%C in ("%%B\*") do (
md "%%~nxC"
for /d %%D in ("%%C\*") do move "%%D\*" "%%~nxC" >nul 2>nul
)
)
rd /s /q "%%A"
)
popd
)
popd
The second FOR loop must be FOR /F instead of FOR /D because FOR /D has the potential to iterate folders that have been added after the loop has begun. FOR /F will cache the entire result of the DIR command before iteration begins, so the newly created folders are guaranteed not to interfere.

Moving files from Subfolders into root directory, but not copying them to the next directory when ran again

I have a folder that contains subfolders with MP4 files. I'm trying to write a script that will move the MP4 files out of the subfolders into the root folder when ran. The batch file I wrote is working, but when the batch script runs again for new subfolders, the MP4 files that were already copied to the root folder, get moved up another level in the file structure. For example:
C:\MainRoot\Root\Subfolder\media.mp4
When script is ran, 'media.mp4' gets moved up to C:\Root\media.mp4 as desired.
But since I need the script to run on a scheduled task. The next time the script runs I get the following:
C:\MainRoot\media.mp4
Instead of just the MP4 file staying in C:\MainRoot\Root.
Here's my batch file so far to copy the mp4 files:
set root_folder=C:\MainRoot\Root
for /f "tokens=1* delims=" %%G in ('dir %root_folder% /b /o:-n /s ^| findstr /i ".mp4" ') do (
move /y "%%G" "%%~dpG..\%%~nxG"
)
What do I need to modify so that once moved, the MP4 files will stay in place?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Since all your source files seem to be at a certain directory level, a for /D loop could be wrapped around your for /F loop, which parses the output of a non-recursive dir command line (no /S):
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem // Define constants here:
set "_ROOT=C:\MainRoot\Root"
set "_PATTERN=*.mp4"
rem // Loop through sub-directories:
for /D %%D in ("%_ROOT%\*") do (
rem // Loop through matching files:
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%F in ('dir /B "%%~fD\%_PATTERN%"') do (
rem // Avoid overwriting destination file:
if not exist "%_ROOT%\%%~nxF" (
rem // Move matching file one level up:
move /Y "%%~fD\%%~nxF" "%_ROOT%\%%~nxF"
)
)
)
endlocal
exit /B
If you are happy to overwrite as in your provided example then something as simple as this may suit your purpose:
#Echo Off
Set root_folder=C:\MainRoot\Root
If /I NOT "%CD%"=="%root_folder%" PushD "%root_folder%" 2>Nul||Exit/B
For /R %%G In (*.mp4) Do If /I NOT "%~dpG"=="%root_folder%\" Move "%%G">Nul 2>&1
If the files are only one folder deep you may prefer this:
#Echo Off
Set root_folder=C:\MainRoot\Root
If /I NOT "%CD%"=="%root_folder%" PushD "%root_folder%" 2>Nul||Exit/B
For /D %%G In (*) Do Move "%%G\*.mp4">Nul 2>&1

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