scripting help for creating new folders within a bunch of folders

[nicolanicola]

I have a folder structure as follows all items>item name>item colour>files.

Now in this item colour folder are 2 files, a large sized image and a thumbnail version of that image. I need to create a folder in here called thumbnail and move the thumbnail image into it. Can I do this with automator or applescript?

I have maybe about 30 item name folders with various amounts of folders within each of those.

If I was to say what it was in code terms it'd be for every folder in all items,open folder then go in every folder in here and create a directory called thumbnail and move the file named closeupTN.jpg into here.

[SirDice]

A simple one-liner would do the trick.

find /base/directory -name '*TN.jpg' -exec cp {} /some/place/where/thumbs/are/stored/ \;

[nicolanicola]

Quote: Originally Posted by SirDice A simple one-liner would do the trick. find /base/directory -name '*TN.jpg' -exec cp {} /some/place/where/thumbs/are/stored/ \;

Thanks for this, problem is the pathname will change all the time, as I need a thumbanaill folder in each folder where the files are. I've attached a screenshot of my directory layout for clarity's sake.

For each of the first folders, open, then for each of the second folders, open and create a folder called thumbnail and move closeupTN.jpg into it.

[SirDice]

Find will traverse all subfolders searching for files.

[nicolanicola]

Is there a 'this' feature in this code? In which case it could be the above code but instead of the path make reference to current directory,or store the create directory path in a variable and then use that variable? I'm a php, actionscript and javascript programmer, so not sure if these coding practices are available for apple scripting.

[nicolanicola]

Quote: Originally Posted by SirDice Find will traverse all subfolders searching for files.

Yes, but the second part of the code where you've got /some/place/where/thumbs/are/stored/ that isn't static, is depends on the current folder we are in

[SirDice]

Quote: Originally Posted by nicolanicola Is there a 'this' feature in this code? In which case it could be the above code but instead of the path make reference to current directory,or store the create directory path in a variable and then use that variable?

Read the find man page.

find $SEARCHPATH -name '*TN.jpg'

find . -name '*TN.jpg'

[ganbustein]

Yes, there is a 'this' feature. Use -execdir instead of -exec.

If I understand you correctly, you want to search recursively through the folder hierarchy rooted at some starting point, and wherever you find a thumbnail in the same subfolder as the JPEG that it's a thumbnail of, you want to move it (not copy it) one level deeper into the folder hierarchy, into a (possibly new) subfolder named 'thumbnail'. Thus, if you start with the structure:

. start/
. . jacket/
. . . red/
. . . . big.jpg
. . . . bigTN.jpg
. . . . small.jpg
. . . . smallTN.jpg
. . vest/
. . . pink/
. . . . double.jpg
. . . . doubleTN.jpg
. . . . single.jpg
. . . . thumbnail/
. . . . . singleTN.jpg

then you want to end up with

. start/
. . jacket/
. . . red/
. . . . big.jpg
. . . . small.jpg
. . . . thumbnail/ <== new folder
. . . . . bigTN.jpg <== moved
. . . . . smallTN.jpg <== moved
. . vest/
. . . pink/
. . . . double.jpg
. . . . single.jpg
. . . . thumbnail/ <== existing folder
. . . . . doubleTN.jpg <== moved
. . . . . singleTN.jpg <== not moved

As a matter of expediency, instead of testing if the full-size picture is adjacent to a putative thumbnail, I'll use the easier test: a file is a thumbnail that needs to be moved if its name matches *TN.jpg, and it is not already nested in a folder named thumbnail.

find starting/folder -not \( -type d -iname thumbnail -prune \) -name '*TN.jpg' -execdir mkdir -p thumbnail \; -execdir mv {} thumbnail \;

.