Move Files having No Extension

Question

I have 5 files in a directory

log.txt
abc.pdf
def.ppt
1CC
1DD

Now I want to Move files having no extension i.e 1CC and 1DD to a another directory i.e tree.

whenever i am manually using command it will work.

command : 
shopt -s extglob
mv !(*.*) tree

but in a bash script it shows the error script :

#/bin/bash
mkdir tree
shopt -s extglob
mv !(*.*) tree/

and saved as stuct.sh after running it

it shows the following error:

struc.sh: line 11: syntax error near unexpected token `('
struc.sh: line 11: `mv !(*.*) tree/'

I have No idea why this is happening. Please provide solution for the same. thanks

Answer 1

This is because you're using special characters in your script. You'll have to escape them.

You can better use find for this:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f ! -name "*.*" -exec mv -t ./tree/ {} \+

This command will:

• find search
• . in the current directory
• -maxdepth 1 with a depth of 1 (so no subdirectories)
• type -f only files
• ! -name "*.*" where the filename does not match *.*
• -exec mv -t ./tree/ {} \+ execute the mv command, the -t argument specifies the target directory (tree in the current directory (.)) and appends (\+) the filename ({}) to it.

This will work in your bash script and it does not try to move directories or your own tree directory to itself (which your mv command will try).