Separate based on file names

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hello experts,
This might prove to be a stupid question to some of you, but I have tried to tackle it in different ways. Being new to shell scripting, I am requesting your help in coming up with an elegant solution. I am using Korn shell.

We have a directory with file names with the pattern:
abc_123
abc_456
xyz_789

I have to compare them against a prefix file to check whether the names behind the underscore are valid and consolidate them in different directories.

How do I do that?

  1. Put them in different files and use diff/comm to compare. This requires multiple passes - since the consolidation is more than what I can highlight here.
  2. Do something like:
    FileList=$(ls -r $SOURCE_DIR) # list & sort
    PrefixList=$(cat $PREFIX_FILE | sort -r)
    for sFile in $sFileList
    do
    iDelimit=$(expr index $sFile _)
    (( iDelimit -= 1 ))
    sFileCmp=$(expr substr $sFile 1 $iDelimit)
    for sPrefix in $sPrefixList
    do
    echo $sFileCmp compared with $sPrefix
    if [ $sFileCmp -gt sPrefix ] # will not work, symbolic
    then
    continue
    elif [ $sFileCmp -eq sPrefix ]
    then
    blPrefixValid=1
    else
    blPrefixValid=0
    break
    fi
    done
  3. Get valid prefixes and run through the directory each time to process files

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

2

What is the criteria to separate the files?

Thanks
Nagarajan G

3

Thanks for your reply.

The prefix is the criteria. If the file has valid prefix (that can be found in the prefix list) - that goes in one directory, if it is a duplicate it goes in the other and so on.