Bash script for copying all files in a directory tree matching one or more specified patterns (such as *.txt) to another tree, creating any directories not already existing. Copies only the path below the source directory to the destination.

copy-files-matching-pattern-preserving-path.sh

#!/bin/bash
# copy-files-matching-pattern-preserving-path
# Bash script for copying all files in a directory tree matching one or more specified patterns (such as *.txt) to another tree, creating any directories not already existing.
# Copies only the path below the source directory, and only creates directories with files matching the pattern.
# (c)2013 Ronny Ager-Wick, released under GPLv3

options=$1
if [[ "${options:0:1}" = "-" ]]; then
  # first char is dash
  if [[ "$options" = "-n" ]]; then
    trial_run="1"
    source_path=$2
    raw_patterns=$3
    destination_path=$4
    if [[ "$5" != "" ]]; then too_many_params=1; fi
  else
    echo "Invalid option: $options"
    echo
    # by not setting destination_path, the syntax and examples will be displayed below this message
  fi
else
  source_path=$1
  raw_patterns=$2
  destination_path=$3
  if [[ "$4" != "" ]]; then too_many_params=1; fi
fi

if [[ "$too_many_params" = "1" ]]; then
  echo "Too many parameters - maybe you forgot to encose the filename pattern in quotes?"
  echo "Your paramters were: $*"
  echo
  destination_path="" # displays the syntax and examples below
fi

if [[ "$destination_path" = "" ]]; then
  echo "Syntax: $0 [-n] source_path \"filename_pattern\" destination_path"
  echo "copies all files matching filename_pattern within source_path to destination_path, preserving pathname after source_path"
  echo "filename_pattern must be enclosed in quotes to avoid shell expanding wildcards if a match is found in the current directory."
  echo
  echo "Options:"
  echo "-n    trial-run - show what will be done without doing it"
  echo
  echo "Examples:"
  echo "$0 /var/lib/gems/1.9.2/gems \"*.so\" vendor"
  echo "$0 /path/to/pictures/and/movies/ \"*.jpg *.jpeg *.png *.JPG *.JPEG *.PNG\" /path/to/where/I/want/pictures/only/"
  exit 1
fi

# process filename pattern
i="first"
filename_pattern=""
for raw_pattern in "$raw_patterns"
  do
  if [[ "$i" != "first" ]]; then
    filename_pattern="$filename_pattern -o"
  fi
  filename_pattern="$filename_pattern -name $raw_pattern"
  i="not first"
done
filename_pattern="$filename_pattern "

if [[ "$trial_run" == "1" ]]; then
  echo "Trial-run - no files will be copied."
  echo -n "Would have copied "
else
  echo -n "Copying "
fi
echo "$raw_patterns from $source_path to $destination_path..."

for f in `set -f; find $source_path $filename_pattern -type f -printf '%P '`
do
  echo "${source_path%/}/$f ==> ${destination_path%/}/$f"
  if [[ "$trial_run" != "1" ]]; then
    mkdir -p `dirname "$destination_path/$f"`
    cp "${source_path%/}/$f" "${destination_path%/}/$f"
  fi
done