I have a folder, app, which is supposed to have import and export folders containing files like so:
$ tree
app
├── export
│ ├── some-unique-filename
│ ├── another-unique-filename
│ └── ...
└── import
├── some-unique-filename
├── another-unique-filename
└── ...
However, due to an rsync script error (now corrected) we've ended up with the app folder being copied into itself, perhaps hundreds of times!
So right now we have this:
$ tree
app
├── app
│ ├── app
│ │ └── ... etc.
│ ├── export
│ │ └── another-unique-filename
│ └── import
│ └── another-unique-filename
├── export
│ └── some-unique-filename
└── import
└── some-unique-filename
How can I fix the current nested-folder structure back to the desired only-one-app folder structure?
A script like this should do it, from the root:
mkdir -p new/export
mkdir -p new/import
# Or use cp - to have the option to try again if you make a mistake
mv app/**/export/* new/export
mv app/**/import/* new/import
The double star matches zero or more directories and subdirectories, taking care of the recursive folder structure for you.
If as you say there are 100s of folders that may error, in which case an alternative is to use find with exec instead:
mkdir -p new/export
mkdir -p new/import
# Or use cp - to have the option to try again if you make a mistake
find app -type f -path '*/export/*' -exec mv {} $PWD/new/export/ \;
find app -type f -path '*/import/*' -exec mv {} $PWD/new/import/ \;
This finds the files recursively under the top-level app folder, and moves them to new/export and new/import (using $PWD to get an absolute path).
Once you're happy with the results - clean up the unwanted folders:
rm -rf app
mv new app