James Wilkinson wrote:
CB wrote:
I can't figure out how to do this: copy (or move) all the hidden files
and directories contained in one directory to another directory.
Is it as embarrasingly simple as I imagine it must be?
Last time this came up, Ulrich Drepper pointed out the
shopt -s dotglob
command.
This makes * match hidden and non-hidden files.
So
shopt -s dotglob
mv $olddir/* $newdir
will move everything, hidden and non-hidden.
Possibly the simplest way to just move hidden would then be to move back
the non-hidden. Or to move them to a safe directory first.
To move only hidden (dot-) files/folders to another directory...
# cp -pr .??* newdir
Why use ".??*" ...
* the initial "." indicates a 'hidden' file (or dot-file in Unix parlance)
* the "??" match at least two characters ... this keeps the pattern from
matching ".." which is the parent-directory
* the "*" match any number (from zero to a-lot!) of characters
