unix script to create tar file

[Nitin Nigam]

Hi

I have more than 50 files in one directory what I want is to separate the files depending on the first 5 letters (ex. tcpco*, nwint*, voice*..etc).
there is possibilty that few more files with different first 5 letters can be added to this directory.
what i want is the script that will check the first 5 letters and tar them (ex. - all files starting with tcpco* to tcp.tar and so on)

since new files with different names can also be added so I dont want to use
(tar xvf ./tcpco*), how can i use the command in script so I dont have to worry about the new files as well, so script will check the filenames (i.e. tcpco*, voice*....) and tar them individually.
thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Scratch look at this(I'm not going to do it all).

ls -1 > file.temp

Thats ls dash 1 to create a alphabetized file list.

# Then

while read -r xx
do
test=substr(5,1)$xx #This you'll have to get to work yourself.

if [ "$test != "$test2" ]
then
tar cfv $test.tar $test*
$test2=$test
fi
test2=$test
done < file.temp

I know its not everything, but its the best I can do right now. Its been a long,long day.

SEP

[Mark Grant]

This works though I'm not sure I like it :)


#!/bin/sh
DONE="none"

for i in `ls`
do
PREFIX=`expr $i : "\(.....\).*"`
if [ $PREFIX != $DONE ]
then
tar cvf $PREFIX.tar $PREFIX*
DONE=$PREFIX
fi
done

[Bhuvaneswari Selvaraj · Accepted solution]

Copy this script to the parent dir of the dir that you want to dir. In this script I am assuming that the name of the dir you want to tar is test, if not change the string test in the scirpt with your di name.

for i in `ll test| awk '{print $NF}' | cut -c 1-5 | sort -u`
do
tar -cvf $i.tar test/$i*
done

[Mark Grant]

SEP,

I can tell it's been a long, long day for you, you were posting here when I went to bed!

Bhuveneswari,

I think it's only fair to include a bit of a test to stop the script creating the same tar file each time the same five characters come up.

[Bhuvaneswari Selvaraj]

Hi Mark,

The catch is that, I had included sort -u in the command, and hence only one instance of the five characters will come. So, the condition "each time, the same five charactiers coming up" will not come in to picture.

I guess sort -u will take care of this, feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

[Mark Grant]

Bhuveneswari, You are absolutely right of course. I therefore vote that your solution is the best one so far! Regards

[Bhuvaneswari Selvaraj]

thx...

btw, is the owner's question answered or not???

[Nitin Nigam]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Bhuvaneswari I used your script and it worked fine for me.