copying recursively and pruning

[marksosson]

hello all,
Ive got a simple question, but i havent found the simple answer, or any answer for that matter. 

I'd like to copy a hierarchy of files, but with a catch:  i only want the .txt files.  cp has the recursive
option -r which copies everything

Code: [Select]

cp -r foo/* bar
but i just want the .txt files.  i thought it might work to do this:

Code: [Select]

cp -r foo/*.txt barbut this doesnt recurse (obviously since my folders dont end with .txt) 

What can i do?

Thanks in advance!

[Rob Pomeroy]

Have a look at find (man find).  The -exec option should help.  Also have a look at xargs.  This is taken from my man pages:

Code: [Select]

EXAMPLES
       find /tmp -name core -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f

       Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and delete them.  Note that this will work incorrectly if there are any filenames
       containing newlines or spaces.

       find /tmp -name core -type f -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm -f

       Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and delete them, processing filenames in such a way that file or directory  names
       containing spaces or newlines are correctly handled.



[ghostdog74]

Code: [Select]

cp -R *.txt  destination