Merge many folders keeping most recent files?

Question

I have 102 directories that I would like to merge into a single directory. If there are conflicts I would like to use the most recent file.

How can I do this?

Previously I've tried searching for the folders then copying them into the same parent directory, since the directories I want to merge have the same name it asks if I want to merge them. However it doesn't have an option to automatically keep the most recent file.

Answer 1

You can do it with a command line :

find orig/ -type f  -exec cp -u -a \{\} dest/ \;

where orig is the directory containing the stuff you want to flatten and copy, and dest your destination directory. So what this will do is:

1. find each file in orig/ and its sub-directories
2. for each file, call copy (cp) to dest with the following options: u mean update, ie only copy if the file in newer, a archive, ie keep attributes, among them the dates of creation / modification

Small test here worked, but of course, be careful, and be sure to have a backup in case :-)