[Solved] Bash to Sort Photos (Complete Newbie)

[Kiyonari]

Hi guys,

I need a script to sort my recovered 6500ish photos into directories based on filename. They are all named by date i.e. 2007-08-17--09.29.04 15d.jpg so I would like to create and move into directories based on first 10 characters of filename (the date) like the picture below:

http://tinypic.com/r/8y56ow/8

I've scoured around various forums and come up with the following, though it does nothing just gives synax error

for filename in *.*; do
dir_name=${filename:0:7};
mkdir -p $dir_name
mv -i $filename $dir_name/${filename}
fi
done

I have no clue what I am doing!

[Kiyonari]

Correction:

for filename in *.*; do
dir_name=${filename:0:10};
mkdir -p $dir_name
mv -i $filename $dir_name/${filename}
fi
done

[Kiyonari]

for filename in *.*; do
dir_name=${filename:0:7};
mkdir -p $dir_name
mv -i $filename $dir_name/${filename}
done

Sorry now removed fi as no if

[Habitual]

use

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set -x

in the script or just before you run the code manually?
What errors does it then show?

[Flemur]

though it does nothing just gives synax error

Extraneous 'fi' ('sposed to go after an 'if').

"7" should also be "10"...?

[Kiyonari]

Thanks for the replies.

The following errors occur:

http://pastebin.com/M565n2Py

I think it might be because each of the filenames has a space prior to the unique number I gave them. Is there a way around this without renaming again? The script makes each directory perfectly, just doesn't move any files.

[Pilosopong Tasyo]

There are two problems with the mv command in your script:

1. The source files doesn't exist.
2. The destination directory doesn't exist either.

One of the syntaxes of the mv command goes like this:

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mv source1 source2 source3 ... destination

So, using the example from your pastebin:

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mv -i 2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg 2012-03-13/2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg

source1 = 2012-03-13--14.31.34
source2 = 471d.jpg
source3 = 2012-03-13/2012-03-13--14.31.34
destination = 471d.jpg

Remember: commands use whitespace (tabs, spacebar) to separate parameters just as we use spaces to separate words.

So, to fix this problem, enclose variables that contain text with spaces in "double quotation marks" (especially filenames) so they get treated as one unit:

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mv -i "2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg" "2012-03-13/2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg"

source = 2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg
destination = 2012-03-13/2012-03-13--14.31.34 471d.jpg

And for the particular line of text that generated the error message:

Code: Select all

mv -i "$filename" $dir_name

Assuming the $dir_name will always contain numbers and hyphens, there's no need to enclose it in double quotation marks. Also, no need to specify $filename after the $dir_name. You are just moving the file with its filename intact, are you not? If that's the case, just specify the directory as destination.

HTH.

[Kiyonari]

Thats correct Pilosopong, I'll make the tweaks and give it a shot, thanks!!

[Kiyonari]

Worked perfectly, what an awesome community! Thanks again.