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I am writing a script to move files into directories based on the filename. Files have yyyyddmm-xxxxxxx.jpg name format. The desired directory structure is in the format 2013/01 Jan/31. I am unable to get date to format correctly with a space between month number and month name. When I try to use +%Y/%m %b format, I get this error message:

date: extra operand `%b"'

I tried double and single quotation marks, but to no avail. However, date +"%Y/%m %b/%d" works fine in sh:

2013/10/27 Oct

Also, is there a better way to generate the directory name than using MOVEDIRSTR and MOVEDIR variables (see script)?

Here's my current script:

FLIST=`ls "$IMGDIR" | grep -E '^.*\.jpg$'`

# If there are files to move
if [ -n "${FLIST}" ]; then
    # For each file
    while read -r line; do
        # Parse filename to YYYY/mm Mmm/Dd
        echo $line
        MOVEDIRSTR=`sed -r -e 's:([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2}).*:date -d \1-\2-\3 +%Y/%m_%b/%d:' <<< "$line"`
        MOVEDIR=`$MOVEDIRSTR`

        # If a directory does not exist, create it
        [ -d "$ARCHIVEDIR/$MOVEDIR" ] || (mkdir -p "$ARCHIVEDIR/$MOVEDIR")

        # Move file into YYYY/mm Mmm directory
        # mv -f "$IMGDIR/$line" "$ARCHIVEDIR/$MOVEDIR"
    done <<< "$FLIST"
fi
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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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You have to quote the format to date after the + sign.

$ date +"%Y/%m %b"
2013/10 Oct

Regarding the variables. $MOVEDIRSTR seems unecessary. 

MOVEDIR=$(sed -r -e 's:([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2}).*:date -d \1-\2-\3 +%Y/%m_%b/%d:' <<< "$line")

Since with $FLIST you're parsing out the dates from that directory, I don't see a cleaner way.

UPDATE #1

Given the OP's feedback in the comments below, he's using a QNAP device and so likely has a watered down version of these commands provided by BusyBox. If you look at the date command like so: ls -l /bin/date it's probably a link to an executable called busybox or something similar. These commands aren't full-featured, hence your problems.

He confirmed this:

You're probably right. My date is its own executable, but /bin/sed -> busybox

Given the limitations the methods discussed above may not work since you're working with a limited set of features with these tools.

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7
  • Quotation marks are not working for me for some reason. sh expands the date format as '+"%Y/%m' '%b/%d"'. Also, for some reason $() is not working and sh tries to execute =date, which does not exist. Here's the output I get when I try your suggested code: +++ sed -r -e 's:([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2}).*:date -d \1-\2-\3 +"%Y/%m %b/%d":' ++ =date -d 2013-10-27 '+"%Y/%m' '%b/%d"' ./dvrsnapshots.sh: line 25: =date: command not found + Commented Oct 27, 2013 at 5:56
  • @Serge - I had a typo with the setting of the variable. Please retry. Also are you using sh or bash? You tagged the Q as bash. Commented Oct 27, 2013 at 6:06
  • I simplified MOVEDIRSTR to: MOVEDIR=$(sed -r -e 's:([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2}).*:date -d \1-\2-\3 +"%Y/%m_%b/%d":' <<< "$line") It was necessary to keep tildas inside $(). Still no luck with date formatting though. Commented Oct 27, 2013 at 6:21
  • I'm running /bin/sh on a QNAP device. Commented Oct 27, 2013 at 6:24
  • @Serge - you're likely using a watered down version of these commands provided by BusyBox. If you look at the date command like so: ls -l /bin/date it's probably a link to an executable called busybox or something similar. These commands aren't full-featured, hence your problems. Commented Oct 27, 2013 at 6:27
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First of all, I would use a glob to avoid parsing ls and obtaining the list of .jpg files in that roundabout way. Second, you can use the shell itself (no need for sed) to extract the date components:

shopt -s nullglob
for file in "$IMGDIR"/*.jpg; do
    file_name="$(basename file)"
    printf "%s\n" "$file_name"
    numbers="${file%-*}"
    year="${numbers%[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]}"
    monthday="${numbers#[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]}"
    month="${monthday%[0-9][0-9]}"
    day="${monthday#[0-9][0-9]}"
    movedir="$(date -d "$year-$month-$day" +"%Y/%m %b/)"
    movefile="$(date -d "$year-$month-$day" +"%Y/%m %b/%d)"
    [ -d "$ARCHIVEDIR/$movedir" ] || mkdir -p "$ARCHIVEDIR/$movedir"
    mv "$file" "$movefile"
done

This assumes of course that your date command has a full enough feature set, since you mentioned it is a separate executable from BusyBox. It will also break if your date string is not exactly 8 digits long.

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1

see if the following could solve the date extraction and formatting part:

$ f=20130131-abcdefgh.jpg
$ [[ $f =~ ^([[:digit:]]{4})([[:digit:]]{2})([[:digit:]]{2}) ]]
$ yyyy=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
$ mm=${BASH_REMATCH[2]}
$ dd=${BASH_REMATCH[3]}
$ date -d ${yyyy}-${mm}-${dd} +'%Y/%m %b/%d'
2013/01 Jan/31
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