TopolearnThese replace find, basename and dirname in one-liners, and work on variables too.
Glob qualifiers combine freely inside one pair of parentheses:
- size
L:(Lk+100)larger than 100 KB,(Lm-1)smaller than 1 MB, - time
m(modified),a(accessed),c(changed):(mh-1)within the last hour,(md+30)more than 30 days ago, - owner:
(U)owned by you,(u:root:)by root;(D)includes dotfiles, - sorting with
o(ascending) orO(descending) followed bynname,Lsize,mmtime; then a subscript like[1,5], ^negates the next qualifier,,means OR between groups, and(e:'expr':)or(+func)run arbitrary tests.
Modifiers transform each match and also work on variables: :t tail (basename), :h head (dirname), :r root (drop the extension), :e extension, :a absolute path, :u and :l change case. $f:t or ${f:r} work on any variable.
With setopt EXTENDED_GLOB you get pattern operators: ^*.log everything not matching, pat~exclude match then exclude, # and ## for repetition, and (#i) for case-insensitive matching.
Zsh also has short loop forms (for f in *.txt; mv ... without do/done), which are handy at the prompt; use full syntax in scripts. For renaming many files, the bundled zmv function (autoload -Uz zmv) is safer than a loop.
Example
cd "$(mktemp -d)"
mkdir logs && print x > a.txt && head -c 200000 /dev/zero > big.bin
touch -d '40 days ago' logs/old.log && touch logs/new.log
print -l **/*(.Lk+100) # big.bin (larger than 100 KB)
print -l **/*.log(.md+30) # logs/old.log (modified > 30 days ago)
print -l *(.oL) # a.txt big.bin (by size, smallest first)
f=/srv/app/report.final.csv
print $f:t $f:h # report.final.csv /srv/app
print $f:r $f:e # /srv/app/report.final csv
print -l logs/*(.:t:r) # new old (modifiers inside qualifiers)
setopt EXTENDED_GLOB
print -l *~*.bin # a.txt logs (~ excludes)
print -l **/^*.log(.) # a.txt big.bin (^ negates the pattern)
for f in *.txt; mv -- $f $f:r.md # short loop form: rename .txt -> .md
print -l *(.) # a.md big.binRemember
- L size, m/a/c time, U/u owner, o/O sort, [n,m] range
- :t :h :r :e modifiers work on matches and on variables
- EXTENDED_GLOB adds ^ negation and ~ exclusion
Watch out for
- Forgetting the (.) qualifier, so directories are included in a destructive command.