MS-DOS question for an expert

I have many sub directories on one drive (say H); I have large # of pictures (all are jpeg) in them. I want to move all the pictures into one directory (say I:\pictures). So after the move, I will have all the pictures in I:\pictures (without any sub directories).
Any recursive script to do it? Did a web search, found a way to move the whole directory tree; that is not what I want.

[llcooljabe]

Wouldn't you need the complete list of subfolder names? I would do

This is a sledgehammer method:


dir /a:d > subfolders.txt

then use notepad to trim down the list of subfolders to

you will get:

h:\january
h:\february
h:\march
etc.

When you got the list, copy "copy " before each line, and "*.* i:\images\" after each line.

Then save the file as imagemove.bat
and run it from a command line.

[GadgetGeek]

Not sure how to do it directly. But here is how I'd do it.
Step 1) from the H: drive root> dir *.jpg /s /b > AllMyPr0n.txt
Step 2) open the file in your favorite text editor (or excel)
Step 3) insert "copy " before the filename and " I:\pictures\" after the filename (like below)

copy "h:\some\really\long\path\tda avatar.jpg" i:\pictures\

Step 4) save this as CopyAllMyPr0n.bat
Step 5) run CopyAllMyPr0n.bat
Step 6) ???
Step 7) Profit

If there is too many pictures to do this method with, you might be able to
dir * /s /b /ad > MyPr0nDirectories.txt (this will create a listing of just the directories)
edit the text file so that a sample line looks like
copy "h:\some\really\long\path\*.jpg" i:\pictures\

[Ron Weasley]

Unless something has been added since MSDOS 5.0, I don't believe that there is a single command that will do this.

Having said that, if this is a on time deal you can create a batch file to do this for you.

First, you'll need a list of files to be copied.

dir /b /s > \temp.csv

Next, you can load this file into excel. Use commands to parse together lines like

copy <path><filename> I:\pictures\<filename>

Save these lines of text into the file \temp.bat. Then, from the command prompt, type

\temp
del \temp.csv
del \temp.bat

If things went well, you will now need to delete the original files

del <path>\*.* /s

Be very carefull with that last command. You don't want to hit the wrong directory.

[far_side]

As another alternative, you can use Windows Search on your parent directory to look for *.jpeg, then cut/paste all files in the search results to the new location.

far_side

Thanks all.

[Incredible Hulctuary]

All you need is a recursive FOR loop:

for /r H:\toplevel %j IN (*.jpg) do copy %j I:\pictures

where "toplevel" is the name of the parent directory that holds all the subdirectories you're interested in. Use the root H:\ if there is no such parent directory that holds everything you want.

[Mojo]

xcopy
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