Creating Compressed Archives for Each Folder With Title

When dealing with a directory full of subdirectories, there might be instances where you want to package each subdirectory’s contents into separate compressed files. This can be particularly useful for organization, sharing, or backup purposes. One way to achieve this is by utilizing the power of shell commands, and specifically, the tar command along with some other utilities.

The Command Breakdown

The command in question accomplishes this task through a combination of the find and tar commands. Here’s a breakdown of each component and its role:

1

find . \( ! -regex './..' \) -type d -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -exec tar czpvf {}.tar.gz {} ;

1. find .: The command starts with find, a versatile utility that searches for files and directories within a specified path.

2. \( ! -regex './..' \): This part ensures that the search includes only subdirectories and not the parent directory (..). It’s achieved through a regular expression exclusion.

3. -type d: This option instructs find to search only for directories.

4. -maxdepth 1: Limits the depth of the search to the current directory and its immediate subdirectories.

5. -mindepth 1: Excludes the starting directory itself from the search.

6. -exec tar czpvf {}.tar.gz {} ;: For each selected subdirectory, this portion executes the tar command to create a compressed archive. The {} placeholders are replaced with the subdirectory’s name.

   • c: Create a new archive.
   • z: Compress the archive using gzip.
   • p: Preserve file permissions.
   • v: Verbosely list the files processed.
   • f: Specifies the filename of the archive.

Practical Application

Imagine you have a directory called projects containing subdirectories like project1, project2, and so on. Running the provided command within the projects directory would result in the creation of compressed archives named project1.tar.gz, project2.tar.gz, and so forth. Each archive would contain the contents of its respective subdirectory.

Caution and Considerations

Before applying such a command in a live environment, it’s recommended to perform a trial run on a smaller scale. This prevents unintended consequences and ensures that the command behaves as expected. Additionally, be mindful of the potentially large number of compressed files that could be generated, especially if you have numerous subdirectories.

In conclusion, the command serves as a powerful tool to efficiently organize and compress directory contents into separate archives, facilitating better data management and distribution.