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Accepted
don.joey
Asked: 2013-05-28 11:14:49 +0800 CST

How can I copy files that are not bigger than 200MB using the terminal?

  • 772

The question says it all. I want to copy files in the terminal, but there are a few big files I don't want to copy (because they are backups). Is there a command to do that?

Something like cp --max-size=200MB?

I know rsync has such an option. Is that the way to go?

command-line

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Try using the find command to build a list of files under 200MB and copy them to a dir. 

    find . -size -200M -exec cp -r {} dir/ \;
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  2. Here is how I do it with rsync:

    rsync --max-size=200MB --progress --verbose --recursive --links --perms  --ignore-existing --executability --owner --group --times SOURCE TARGET

    I would still like to accept an cp solution, though.

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  3. This

    find . -size -200M -exec cp -r {} dir/ \;

    didn´t work for me, because it copies all files when it finds a folder, because of the "r" flag on cp. I had to do the following:

    1. Get the list of the files when their size is -200MB

       find /yourdirectory -type f -size -200M > list.txt

    2. Then, copy the files from the list.txt.

       cp --parents  $(cat list.txt) /newFolder

      The "cp" and the "--parents" flag will copy the files and create the necessary folder tree.

    3. After that, you have to move the folder to the right place, but it´s simple.

    Hope it helps.

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