make a bunch of files based on a template file

echo "template file: ";read tpl;echo "new file(s separated w. space):"; read fl;touch $fl;find $fl -exec cp -ap $tpl "{}" \;
make a bunch of files with the same permissions, owner, group, and content as a template file (handy if you have much to do w. .php, .html files or alike)

0
By: knoppix5
2013-03-08 10:00:36

What Others Think

You don't need the echos, read has a -p (prompt) option: read -p "template file: " tpl;read -p "new file(s) separated w. space: " fl;touch $fl;find $fl -exec cp -ap $tpl "{}" \; Also, using a for loop is slightly shorter (and less complicated) than touch and find. read -p "template file: " tpl;read -p "new file(s) separated w. space: " fl;for i in $fl; do cp -ap $tpl $i; done
flatcap · 674 weeks and 2 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

You must be signed in to comment.

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands



Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: