Move a list of files(in a text file) to a directory?












7















I have a list of files, with their full paths, one per line in a file "files.txt"



I was trying to move all of those files from their original location to a new directory.



I CDed into the directory where they live now and issued



for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt do mv $file ~/newfolder



but nothing happens. I am sure I am missing something obvious






bash mv







share|improve this question




















  • 1





    You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:01






  • 1





    @nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:24













  • @terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:25
















7















I have a list of files, with their full paths, one per line in a file "files.txt"



I was trying to move all of those files from their original location to a new directory.



I CDed into the directory where they live now and issued



for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt do mv $file ~/newfolder



but nothing happens. I am sure I am missing something obvious






bash mv







share|improve this question




















  • 1





    You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:01






  • 1





    @nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:24













  • @terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:25














7












7








7


4






I have a list of files, with their full paths, one per line in a file "files.txt"



I was trying to move all of those files from their original location to a new directory.



I CDed into the directory where they live now and issued



for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt do mv $file ~/newfolder



but nothing happens. I am sure I am missing something obvious






bash mv







share|improve this question
















I have a list of files, with their full paths, one per line in a file "files.txt"



I was trying to move all of those files from their original location to a new directory.



I CDed into the directory where they live now and issued



for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt do mv $file ~/newfolder



but nothing happens. I am sure I am missing something obvious






bash mv




bash mv






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Apr 2 '14 at 11:14









Der Hochstapler

67.8k49230284




67.8k49230284










asked Jan 18 '13 at 16:54









SteveSteve

242149




242149








  • 1





    You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:01






  • 1





    @nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:24













  • @terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:25














  • 1





    You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:01






  • 1





    @nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:24













  • @terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:25








1




1





You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:01





You need some separators there, try to just echo it with: for file in ~/Desktop/files.txt; do echo $file; done.

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:01




1




1





@nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

– terdon
Jan 18 '13 at 17:24







@nerdwaller that won't work, bash will just print "~/Desktop/files.txt" it won't read the file unless explicitly told to either by for n in $(cat files.txt); do something; done or while read n; do something; done < files.txt.

– terdon
Jan 18 '13 at 17:24















@terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:25





@terdon, I wanted to edit it when I realized I was on non-thinking autopilot but it was past the expiration. Thanks for pointing it out and providing the fix :)

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:25










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes


















7














bash won't read the contents of the file unless you tell it to.



for file in $(cat ~/Desktop/files.txt); do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done





share|improve this answer


























  • If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:20






  • 1





    @nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:56






  • 2





    Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:06













  • @slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

    – Nifle
    Jan 18 '13 at 19:14






  • 3





    This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

    – Daniel Andersson
    Jan 18 '13 at 20:29



















6














You need to tell your loop to read the file, otherwise it is just executing:



mv ~/Desktop/files.txt ~/newfolder


In addition, as nerdwaller said, you need separators. Try this:



while read file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


If your paths or file names contain spaces or other strange characters, you may need to do this:



while IFS= read -r file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


Notice the quotes " around the $file variable.






share|improve this answer


























  • Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:21











  • Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:47











  • No worries, they are both correct.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:50











  • I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:15








  • 1





    Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:29





















3














If the filenames do not contain whitespace:



mv -t dest_dir $(< text.file)


is probably the most concise way.



If there is whitespace in the filenames



while IFS= read -r filename; do mv "$filename" dest_dir; done < test.file


is safe.






share|improve this answer
























  • The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

    – Craig Finch
    Jan 29 at 17:56



















0














Possibly



mv -t dest_dir $(sed 's|^|"|;s|$|"|' text.file)


also deals with filenames with spaces while still using a single mv command and no loop. Untested.






share|improve this answer
























  • There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

    – fixer1234
    Feb 20 '16 at 18:03



















0














Try this:



python -c "import shutil; [shutil.move(_.strip(), 'new') for _ in open('files.txt').readlines()];"






share|improve this answer
























  • (1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

    – Scott
    Jan 23 at 8:18











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "3"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f538306%2fmove-a-list-of-filesin-a-text-file-to-a-directory%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes








5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









7














bash won't read the contents of the file unless you tell it to.



for file in $(cat ~/Desktop/files.txt); do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done





share|improve this answer


























  • If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:20






  • 1





    @nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:56






  • 2





    Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:06













  • @slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

    – Nifle
    Jan 18 '13 at 19:14






  • 3





    This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

    – Daniel Andersson
    Jan 18 '13 at 20:29
















7














bash won't read the contents of the file unless you tell it to.



for file in $(cat ~/Desktop/files.txt); do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done





share|improve this answer


























  • If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:20






  • 1





    @nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:56






  • 2





    Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:06













  • @slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

    – Nifle
    Jan 18 '13 at 19:14






  • 3





    This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

    – Daniel Andersson
    Jan 18 '13 at 20:29














7












7








7







bash won't read the contents of the file unless you tell it to.



for file in $(cat ~/Desktop/files.txt); do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done





share|improve this answer















bash won't read the contents of the file unless you tell it to.



for file in $(cat ~/Desktop/files.txt); do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Jan 18 '13 at 19:16

























answered Jan 18 '13 at 17:16









NifleNifle

28k2393128




28k2393128













  • If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:20






  • 1





    @nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:56






  • 2





    Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:06













  • @slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

    – Nifle
    Jan 18 '13 at 19:14






  • 3





    This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

    – Daniel Andersson
    Jan 18 '13 at 20:29



















  • If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:20






  • 1





    @nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:56






  • 2





    Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:06













  • @slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

    – Nifle
    Jan 18 '13 at 19:14






  • 3





    This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

    – Daniel Andersson
    Jan 18 '13 at 20:29

















If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:20





If this is on a single line, you would need ; between $() and do.

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:20




1




1





@nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

– Steve
Jan 18 '13 at 17:56





@nifle Would this work if the files all had different paths, when a path might be /Users/lombardi/work files/myfile.png and another in the same file.txt /docs/file.jpg?

– Steve
Jan 18 '13 at 17:56




2




2





Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:06







Useless use of cat, and your script breaks in multiple ways, even if a file just contains a space in its path. Please fix this, as this kind of a common cause for problems.

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:06















@slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

– Nifle
Jan 18 '13 at 19:14





@slhck - I don't agree on the useless use of cat dogma, especially for oneliners like this. Finding out what cat does if you are unfamilliar is simple, trying to understand what < ~/Desktop/files.txt is not as straight forward.

– Nifle
Jan 18 '13 at 19:14




3




3





This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

– Daniel Andersson
Jan 18 '13 at 20:29





This still breaks on file names that contain spaces. Since IFS is set to any white space, a file name like Quarterly report.pdf will fail above, even though $file is quoted, since Bash will split loop arguments on the whitespace: first $file will contain "Quarterly" and on the next iteration it will contain "report.pdf". One workaround is to set IFS='n', but a failsafe solution already exists in the < files.txt version. This is one of the reasons that it is not good to learn people to loop like this, since it will break sooner or later.

– Daniel Andersson
Jan 18 '13 at 20:29













6














You need to tell your loop to read the file, otherwise it is just executing:



mv ~/Desktop/files.txt ~/newfolder


In addition, as nerdwaller said, you need separators. Try this:



while read file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


If your paths or file names contain spaces or other strange characters, you may need to do this:



while IFS= read -r file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


Notice the quotes " around the $file variable.






share|improve this answer


























  • Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:21











  • Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:47











  • No worries, they are both correct.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:50











  • I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:15








  • 1





    Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:29


















6














You need to tell your loop to read the file, otherwise it is just executing:



mv ~/Desktop/files.txt ~/newfolder


In addition, as nerdwaller said, you need separators. Try this:



while read file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


If your paths or file names contain spaces or other strange characters, you may need to do this:



while IFS= read -r file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


Notice the quotes " around the $file variable.






share|improve this answer


























  • Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:21











  • Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:47











  • No worries, they are both correct.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:50











  • I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:15








  • 1





    Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:29
















6












6








6







You need to tell your loop to read the file, otherwise it is just executing:



mv ~/Desktop/files.txt ~/newfolder


In addition, as nerdwaller said, you need separators. Try this:



while read file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


If your paths or file names contain spaces or other strange characters, you may need to do this:



while IFS= read -r file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


Notice the quotes " around the $file variable.






share|improve this answer















You need to tell your loop to read the file, otherwise it is just executing:



mv ~/Desktop/files.txt ~/newfolder


In addition, as nerdwaller said, you need separators. Try this:



while read file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


If your paths or file names contain spaces or other strange characters, you may need to do this:



while IFS= read -r file; do mv "$file" ~/newfolder; done < ~/Desktop/files.txt


Notice the quotes " around the $file variable.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Jan 18 '13 at 18:21

























answered Jan 18 '13 at 17:16









terdonterdon

41.5k888137




41.5k888137













  • Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:21











  • Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:47











  • No worries, they are both correct.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:50











  • I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:15








  • 1





    Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:29





















  • Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

    – nerdwaller
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:21











  • Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

    – Steve
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:47











  • No worries, they are both correct.

    – terdon
    Jan 18 '13 at 17:50











  • I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:15








  • 1





    Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

    – slhck
    Jan 18 '13 at 18:29



















Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:21





Thanks for editing mine, I realized my error but was unable to correct (comment edit time limit) and was writing an answer when yours popped up. Thanks!

– nerdwaller
Jan 18 '13 at 17:21













Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

– Steve
Jan 18 '13 at 17:47





Thanks, that works too but I found the other post to be easier to remember for the future.

– Steve
Jan 18 '13 at 17:47













No worries, they are both correct.

– terdon
Jan 18 '13 at 17:50





No worries, they are both correct.

– terdon
Jan 18 '13 at 17:50













I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:15







I was going to make the same edit as you did, thanks :) (Sorry, it's just that there are so many "good enough" or mostly wrong Bash loops around on the Internet…)

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:15






1




1





Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:29







Yeah, I just checked. With while, it works somewhat okay. It's just the -r option should be used to retain backslashes, and setting IFS= makes read not trim any leading or trailing whitespace. It's for that causes issues. See: Don't Read Lines With For

– slhck
Jan 18 '13 at 18:29













3














If the filenames do not contain whitespace:



mv -t dest_dir $(< text.file)


is probably the most concise way.



If there is whitespace in the filenames



while IFS= read -r filename; do mv "$filename" dest_dir; done < test.file


is safe.






share|improve this answer
























  • The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

    – Craig Finch
    Jan 29 at 17:56
















3














If the filenames do not contain whitespace:



mv -t dest_dir $(< text.file)


is probably the most concise way.



If there is whitespace in the filenames



while IFS= read -r filename; do mv "$filename" dest_dir; done < test.file


is safe.






share|improve this answer
























  • The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

    – Craig Finch
    Jan 29 at 17:56














3












3








3







If the filenames do not contain whitespace:



mv -t dest_dir $(< text.file)


is probably the most concise way.



If there is whitespace in the filenames



while IFS= read -r filename; do mv "$filename" dest_dir; done < test.file


is safe.






share|improve this answer













If the filenames do not contain whitespace:



mv -t dest_dir $(< text.file)


is probably the most concise way.



If there is whitespace in the filenames



while IFS= read -r filename; do mv "$filename" dest_dir; done < test.file


is safe.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Jan 18 '13 at 20:40









glenn jackmanglenn jackman

16k22645




16k22645













  • The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

    – Craig Finch
    Jan 29 at 17:56



















  • The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

    – Craig Finch
    Jan 29 at 17:56

















The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

– Craig Finch
Jan 29 at 17:56





The mv command only supports the -t flag on systems with the GNU version of mv; this version won't work on OS X or non-GNU UNIX derivatives.

– Craig Finch
Jan 29 at 17:56











0














Possibly



mv -t dest_dir $(sed 's|^|"|;s|$|"|' text.file)


also deals with filenames with spaces while still using a single mv command and no loop. Untested.






share|improve this answer
























  • There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

    – fixer1234
    Feb 20 '16 at 18:03
















0














Possibly



mv -t dest_dir $(sed 's|^|"|;s|$|"|' text.file)


also deals with filenames with spaces while still using a single mv command and no loop. Untested.






share|improve this answer
























  • There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

    – fixer1234
    Feb 20 '16 at 18:03














0












0








0







Possibly



mv -t dest_dir $(sed 's|^|"|;s|$|"|' text.file)


also deals with filenames with spaces while still using a single mv command and no loop. Untested.






share|improve this answer













Possibly



mv -t dest_dir $(sed 's|^|"|;s|$|"|' text.file)


also deals with filenames with spaces while still using a single mv command and no loop. Untested.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Feb 20 '16 at 17:21









lo guestolo guesto

1




1













  • There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

    – fixer1234
    Feb 20 '16 at 18:03



















  • There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

    – fixer1234
    Feb 20 '16 at 18:03

















There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

– fixer1234
Feb 20 '16 at 18:03





There are three other answers, all upvoted and one accepted. This answer is unexplained code that you labeled as untested. Why would someone use this answer?

– fixer1234
Feb 20 '16 at 18:03











0














Try this:



python -c "import shutil; [shutil.move(_.strip(), 'new') for _ in open('files.txt').readlines()];"






share|improve this answer
























  • (1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

    – Scott
    Jan 23 at 8:18
















0














Try this:



python -c "import shutil; [shutil.move(_.strip(), 'new') for _ in open('files.txt').readlines()];"






share|improve this answer
























  • (1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

    – Scott
    Jan 23 at 8:18














0












0








0







Try this:



python -c "import shutil; [shutil.move(_.strip(), 'new') for _ in open('files.txt').readlines()];"






share|improve this answer













Try this:



python -c "import shutil; [shutil.move(_.strip(), 'new') for _ in open('files.txt').readlines()];"







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Jan 23 at 7:49









Miao XuMiao Xu

1




1













  • (1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

    – Scott
    Jan 23 at 8:18



















  • (1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

    – Scott
    Jan 23 at 8:18

















(1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

– Scott
Jan 23 at 8:18





(1) Can you explain this?  (And have you tested it?)  (2) Does this have any advantage over the other answers? … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.

– Scott
Jan 23 at 8:18


















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Super User!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f538306%2fmove-a-list-of-filesin-a-text-file-to-a-directory%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







-

Popular posts from this blog

Index of /

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here
Read more

Tribalistas

Image
  Nota: Para o álbum homônimo, veja Tribalistas (álbum de 2002). Para o segundo álbum homônimo, veja Tribalistas (álbum de 2017). Para o tipo de organização tribal, veja Tribalismo. Tribalistas Informação geral Origem Salvador e Rio de Janeiro País   Brasil Gênero(s) MPB Pop Samba Período em atividade 2002–2004 2017–atualmente Gravadora(s) EMI Phonomotor Records Universal Music Afiliação(ões) Dadi Pretinho da Serrinha Margareth Menezes Integrantes Arnaldo Antunes Carlinhos Brown Marisa Monte Página oficial www2.uol.com.br/tribalistas/ ...
Read more

Listed building

Image
Listed building (literalmente: prédio listado ) é toda estrutura protegida por lei pelo complexo sistema de tombamento do Reino Unido. Um listed building é qualquer estrutura oficialmente designada como tendo especial interesse arquitetônico, histórico ou cultural. É um estatuto amplamente usado, aplicado a centenas de milhares de estruturas. Estruturas tombadas não podem ser alteradas sem permissão especial, e desfrutam de isenções fiscais e outros benefícios. Cada um dos países do Reino Unido trata tombamento de forma diferente: Índice 1 Inglaterra 2 País de Gales 3 Irlanda do Norte 4 Escócia 5 Referências Inglaterra | O Palácio de Buckingham, Londres. As estruturas tombadas são listadas no Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest , e incluem campos, sinais de trânsito, piers e áreas geográficas. A principal legislação pertinente é o Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 , [ 1 ] embora legisla...
Read more