cp command with regular expressions

[Danny Fang]

Hi,

I have files with the following naming format:
measlog0, measlog2, measlog3, measlog4, measlog5, measlog6, measlog7, measlog8, measlog9, measlog10, measlog11.

I'd like to copy these files to different directory, using "cp" command with some regular expressions:

1) cp measlog[0-9]* /tmp/testdir
This option works well if there no other characters after the filename measlog such as measlog9abc or measlog9_test

I attempted a more secure method, but did not work:
bash-2.05$ cp measlog[0-9]*$ /tmp/testdir
cp: cannot access measlog[0-9]*$

bash-2.05$ cp measlog[0-9]{2} /tmp/testdir
cp: cannot access measlog[0-9]{2}

Could anyone show how I could use a more "secure" regular expression within "cp" to ensure files like measlog0, measlog1 ... measlog11 (i.e. measlog) are the only files copied over?

Thanks
Danny

[Piergiacomo Perini]

Hi Danny,

and this :

cp measlog?? /tmp/testdir

could meet your needs?

hth
regards
pg

[Peter Godron · Accepted solution]

Danny,
cp measlog*[0-9] /tmp/testdir

[Piergiacomo Perini]

Hi again Danny,

or try

cp measlog[0-90-9] /tmp/testdir

Regards
pg

[Yang Qin_1]

Hi, Danny,

Try:
for fn in measlog*
do cp $fn /tmp/testdir
done

Regards,
Yang

[Bill Hassell]

Since there are two different forms of the filename, you have to use two expressions like this:

cp measlog[0-9] measlog[0-9][0-9] /somedir

As always, test the list with echo first:

echo cp measlog[0-9] measlog[0-9][0-9] /somedir

cp knows nothing about regular expresions (or more accurately, filename generation) so the echo will show you what cp will see.

[Peter Godron]

Danny,
can you please update with any feedback.

If the problem is resolved, could you please identify the solution, rewards any helpful answers and close the thread.

[Danny Fang]

Hi everyone,
Issue resolved by using the method suggested by Peter, i.e.:
cp measlog*[0-9] /tmp/testdir

Thank you all for your help.