Recursively read folders and executes command on each of them

Question

I am trying to recurse into folders and then run commands on them, using bash script. Any suggestions?

The problem is unclear. Do you simply want to use find to execute a command on all the files beneath a given directory? — William Pursell, Aug 26 '09 at 10:48

score 70 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 22 '12 at 10:53

70

If you want to recurse into directories, executing a command on each file found in those, I would use the find command, instead of writing anything using shell-script, I think.

That command can receive lots of parameters, like type to filter the types of files returned, or exec to execute a command on each result.

For instance, to find directories that are under the one I'm currently in :

find . -type d -exec echo "Hello, '{}'" \;

Which will get me somehthing like :

Hello, '.'
Hello, './.libs'
Hello, './include'
Hello, './autom4te.cache'
Hello, './build'
Hello, './modules'

Same to find the files under the current directory :

find . -type f -exec echo "Hello, '{}'" \;

which will get me something like this :

Hello, './config.guess'
Hello, './config.sub'
Hello, './.libs/memcache_session.o'
Hello, './.libs/memcache_standard_hash.o'
Hello, './.libs/memcache_consistent_hash.o'
Hello, './.libs/memcache.so'
Hello, './.libs/memcache.lai'
Hello, './.libs/memcache.o'
Hello, './.libs/memcache_queue.o'
Hello, './install-sh'
Hello, './config.h.in'
Hello, './php_memcache.h'
...

Some would say "it's not shell"... But why re-invent the wheel ?
(And, in a way, it is shell ^^ )

For more informations, you can take a look at :

man find
lots of tutorials found with google, like, for instance, Unix Find Command Tutorial

edited Dec 22 '12 at 10:53

Abizern

146,289
39
203
257

answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:49

Pascal MARTIN

395,085
80
655
663

If you need to rename directories as well as files recursively check out this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4268591/unix-rename-files-directories-to-uppercase – JJones Dec 11 '13 at 08:59
thanks. how would i adjust this to look just for sub-directories of my current directory, and not look for sub-sub directories – Zach Smith Oct 18 '17 at 09:51
ah. like this: `find . -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec echo "Hello, '{}'" \;` – Zach Smith Oct 18 '17 at 09:52
How do I make it use a function? I have it defined with `wavogg() { stuff }` and `find` just says `'wavogg': No such file or directory` – Aaron Franke Mar 19 '19 at 23:26
Actually, it also doesn't seem to work with `cd`... `find . -type d -exec cd "'{}'" \;` – Aaron Franke Mar 19 '19 at 23:27

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 27 '15 at 17:26

Bash 4.0 introduced the globstar option, so a construct like:

for f in mydir/**/*
do
  # operations here
done

...will act recursively on whatever lands in $f. Turn this on with "shopt -s globstar", otherwise the ** will be treated as a singular *.

Found this gem today at http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/globstar-new-bash-globbing-option, after being inspired by the zsh construct (which I have enabled by default).

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 23 '13 at 10:52

Some basic shells miss commands like 'find' and some of their commands don't support recursivity. In that case you can use this script to run the desired command in all subdirs in the tree:

CDIR=$(pwd)
for i in $(ls -R | grep :); do
    DIR=${i%:}                    # Strip ':'
    cd $DIR
    $1                            # Your command
    cd $CDIR
done

If you name the above "recurse.sh" then use:

./recurse.sh <command>

Example (change the owner/group to 'root' of all files in the tree):

./recurse.sh "chown 0:0 *"

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 04 '12 at 17:10

7

Something like this should achieve your goal:

function RecurseDirs
{
    oldIFS=$IFS
    IFS=$'\n'
    for f in "$@"
    do
    -----your activity here-----
        if [[ -d "${f}" ]]; then
            cd "${f}"
            RecurseDirs $(ls -1 ".")
            cd ..
        fi
    done
    IFS=$oldIFS
}

edited Oct 04 '12 at 17:10

Zuul

16,217
6
61
88

answered Aug 26 '09 at 23:47

dreynold

865
8
17

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:48

1

Have a look at the find command and check the switches -type (use d to specify directory) and -exec (to specify a command to execute).

answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:48

Simon Groenewolt

10,607
1
36
64

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:50

1

Sorry I don't understand what you are asking. The best I can guess with your question is

find -type d -exec scriptname.sh \{\} \;

answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:50

Michael Lloyd Lee mlk

14,561
3
44
81

In this case, the script will be executed inside each dir? – Sigur Nov 26 '16 at 13:37
1

Nope, the script is executed in the location of `find`. – Michael Lloyd Lee mlk Dec 09 '16 at 13:08

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 26 '09 at 10:56

For most recursive file operations, you want to use find, as the other answers explain.

There is an example of a recursive bash script included in the bash-doc package. If you've got those examples installed, it will be at /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/functions/recurse (on Debian).

Recursively read folders and executes command on each of them

7 Answers7

Linked

Related