howto copy folder "test" to another folder with icreased number test1, test2 test3

Question

I am very new to this but making progress every day.

I am a bit stuk now...

What I want to do is the following:

Copy folder /test to another folder called /test

But what I would like to do to is when every time I execute the "copy" command, I would like it to check if the /test folder already exists, if so increase a number in de folder name, like /test1, /test2 etc etc.. and start over if for example test10 is reached.

What is the best method to do this?

Answer 1

Assuming you have a folder named test, write a shell script copytest with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash

i=1
while true
do
    if [ -d test$i ]
    then
        i=$((i+1))
    else
        cp -r test test$i
        break
    fi
    if [ $i -eq 11 ]
    then
        rm -r test{1..10}
        cp -r test test1
        break
    fi
done

Now make it executable with chmod u+x copytest and each time you call ./copytest you'll get a new copy named test<n>.

Explanation:

• [ -d test$i ] checks whether there is already a folder test$i
• break exits the otherwise infinite loop initiated by while true.
• The eleventh call will delete all copies and begin again with test1.

This does what you asked for in your question (create more and more copies of test). If you want the copies to "move on" at each call (i.e. test10 is discarded, test9 becomes test10, etc.) then you should take a look at the logrotate command as suggested by @Jean-Marie in the first comment.