Linux – copy and replace to folders to another fastest way – linux bash

bashcplinux

I have a three folders: core, project and merge with many files inside.
I want to delete all files and folders (including dot files) inside the merge folder, and then copy all files (including dot files) from the core folder to the merge folder, as well as merge all files in the project folder into the merge files.

Situations

  1. How can i remove all files and folders (including dot files) from special folders, without removing them? (rm -rf /path/to/folder/* did not delete files and folders.)
  2. What is fastest way to copy (with and without merge and replace) all files recursively from special folder to another one (including dot files)? (tar -cf my.tar path/; tar -xf my.tar)

I'm using tar but there are too many files and I need a faster way.

Best Answer

Deletion

rm -r merge/* merge/.*
rm: "." and ".." may not be removed

You can safely ignore that warning. Personally, I'd probably just rm -r merge and nuke the directory itself.

Copying

cp -r core/ merge/

... but that will overwrite the merge directory.

cd core && find . -exec cp "{}" "../merge/{}" \;

A bit slower and harder to write, but functional and doesn't clobber the parent directory.

All at once

rsync -av --delete core/ merge/
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