[SOLVED] consolidate backups using cp

[JerryC58]

Over the years I have made many backups of my Home directory. I am thinking of consolidating all of the Documents, Downloads etc directories to save space. So my idea is to create a new Documents directory, then copy files from all of the other Documents folders to the new one (unless they are duplicates), and then delete the old Documents folders.

I have studied man cp and I wonder if "cp -n /dir/*.* -t /dir" will do the job?

JC

[JerryC58]

Any ideas on this?

JC

[Boca]

Any ideas on this?

JC

Personally, I would first run fslint to identify and remove duplicates ( if you're running 20.1, you'll have to install this .. see help I received in this thread viewtopic.php?f=90&t=346420)

If you're then using cp then would -u be better?
-u, --update Copy only when the source file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing.

Rgds, Tony

PS do a dummy run on test files first.

[AndyMH]

If I didn't use cp I'd probably use rsync. What are you going to use to find duplicates?

[JerryC58]

OK, here's where I'm at. My short term plan is to consolidate all the Document folders on my external backup drive. Using terminal, I figured out how to find that drive and get to the directories on it. I am attempting the first try using the following command to copy a Document folder to a new folder called merge: cp -u -r *.* /media/jc/01EF34E406892AF5/merge/Documents

The merge/Documents folder is empty. The copy appears to work, but when I check the destination, all I have is all of the individual files and 3 of 168 folders. Why isn't it getting all of the folders?
JC

[Boca]

I made the same set up
and found that

Code: Select all

cp -u -r *.* /media/jc/01EF34E406892AF5/merge/Documents

would not work at all as it returned "No such file or directory"
but by replacing *.* with * then it did work.

Hope that helps.

[AndyMH]

but by replacing *.* with * then it did work.

You beat me to it

[JerryC58]

The suggestion of using * instead of *.* is working, but raises some more questions.
The option of -u to the cp command states that it will only copy a duplicate file if it is newer than the target file. How does it determine if the file is newer?
I found the --preserve option and it keeps the date modified intact. I hope that's the determining factor.

JC

[Boca]

The suggestion of using * instead of *.* is working, but raises some more questions.
The option of -u to the cp command states that it will only copy a duplicate file if it is newer than the target file. How does it determine if the file is newer?
I found the --preserve option and it keeps the date modified intact. I hope that's the determining factor.

JC

My understanding is that this is the last time the file was modified.

Unless the files have been backed-up by a method which changes the modification date as part of the copy?? ( Now I'm asking a question.... )

Tony

[JerryC58]

I'm moving along with my project. We'll know the answer later today or tomorrow.

JC

[JerryC58]

I believe the copy command we have come up with is doing the job. This will give me back quite a bit of space on my external drive. Thank you all for the help.

JC