mjhjmtu

I have a bash script that moves files from a number of different locations to a folder named completed.

I want to avoid overwriting previous files, so in the case when the name of a file (for example, Selection Of Recipes.zip) I want to move is already in completed, add a nonce or other string to the filename to differentiate (Selection of Recipes-???.zip, where ??? is a random string).

Is this possible with just mv, or should I try creating another bash script with arguments that handles that aspect? Does anyone have a bash script that I can pattern my own against?

If you're using GNU mv you have the following option.

$ mv -b source/* dest/.

This switch tells mv to push any files that collide in the dest/. directory to a backed up version, typically adding a tilde (~) to the end of the file, prior to moving files into the directory.

Example

Say I have the following sample directories with files.

$ mkdir source dest
$ touch source/file1..3 dest/file1..5

$ tree
.
├── dest
│   ├── file1
│   ├── file2
│   ├── file3
│   ├── file4
│   └── file5
└── source
 ├── file1
 ├── file2
 └── file3

Now when we move files from source to dest:

$ mv -b source/* dest/.
$ tree 
.
├── dest
│   ├── file1
│   ├── file1~
│   ├── file2
│   ├── file2~
│   ├── file3
│   ├── file3~
│   ├── file4
│   └── file5
└── source

2 directories, 8 files

Controlling the extension

Again with GNU's version of mv you can change the default behavior using the -S <string> switch.

$ mv -b -S "string" source/* dest/.

Example

$ mv -b -S .old source/* dest/.

$ tree 
.
├── dest
│   ├── file1
│   ├── file1.old
│   ├── file2
│   ├── file2.old
│   ├── file3
│   ├── file3.old
│   ├── file4
│   └── file5
└── source

2 directories, 8 files

Here is the script. If you call it move, you will have to use the command move file destination

#!/bin/bash

FILE=$1
DEST=$2

if `ls $DEST/$FILE > /dev/null`
then
 base=`echo $FILE | sed 's/(.*)..*/1/'`
 ext=`echo $FILE | sed 's/.*.(.*)/1'`
 r=$RANDOM
 mv $FILE $DEST/$base-$r.$ext
else
 mv $FILE $DEST
fi

You probably should add some validation (like making sure that the random numbered file does not exist already) and the fact that the user supplies two arguments.