Copy only files and only lines containing a string while preserving directory structure

Question

Say I have a directory that contains other directories and files. I want to search for a string in each file and copy only the matching lines to another location while preserving directory structure.

For example, say I have this structure

dir
  subdir1
     file1.txt
  subdir2
     file2.txt

and

file1.txt:

abc

def

and

file2.txt:

ghi

Now I want to get only matching lines from the files that contain 'de', so the outcome I want should look like this:

dir
  subdir1
     file1.txt
  subdir2

and

file1.txt

def

This is more a programming question (be it in bash) than a Linux question: you may consider posting it on StackOverflow instead. (However I won't flag anything here as some people will think of a conditional grep-supported find to do just that there :) ). — JohnW
– JohnW, Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 16:40

Satō Katsura · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-02 18:12:07Z

With GNU find(1), xargs(1), and grep(1):

duplicate the directory structure:

src=/path/to/source
dest=/other/path/to/destination
pat='some_grep_pattern'

cd "$dest"
find "$src" -type d ! -path "$src" -printf '%P\0' | xargs -0 mkdir -p

copy files with the given pattern:

cd "$src"
grep -rlZ "$pat" | \
    (cd "$dest"; \
    xargs -0 sh -c ' \
        while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do \
            grep "$pat" "$src/$1" >"$1"; \
            touch -r "$src/$1" >"$1"; \
            shift; \
        done' sh)

restore permissions, assuming Linux, and assuming you don't have filenames with embedded newlines:
```
cd "$src"
getfacl -RPe . | (cd "$dest"; setfacl --restore=-)
```

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