Use 'find' to locate files matching regular expression

I want it to match files and folders. However, if the folder matches the pattern, it and its contents should be moved intact. `find` handles this fine, but the `xargs` tries to execute the `mv` on the folder contents after the folder has been moved, and results in the error.

example: `find /path/to/upload` gives me the following list of items. The C64-14-AbcdE-01 folder should be moved with the html and mov files left inside. This happens just fine, but when xargs tries to mv the html file (the second line in the `find` output), it results in the 'cannot stat file' error.

/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.html
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.mov

I've tried using the -ignore_readdir_race option, which should help with this issue (`man` contents for this `find` option below), but it does not change anything. I believe this is because I'm piping the output through two additional commands, and there's no actual race condition in the `find` execution. This is why I'm trying to combine my find, grep and mv into a single find execution.

`man` contents for -ignore_readdir_race option for `find`:
 -ignore_readdir_race
Normally,  find  will  emit  an error message when it fails to stat a file.  If you give this option and a file is deleted between the time find reads the name of the file from the directory and the time it tries to stat the file, no error message will be issued. This also applies to files or directories whose names are given on the  command  line. This option takes effect at the time the command line is read, which means that you cannot search one part of the filesystem with this option on and part of it with this option off (if you need to do that, you will need to issue two find commands instead, one with the option and one without it).

OK, in the case, you should use the -depth option.

  -depth    Process each directory's contents before the directory itself.

The -depth option would produce a result that is the direct opposite of my intention. I want to process the directory before the contents. In other words, once the directory is processed, do not try to process the contents.

I know *what* I want to do. My problem is writing the find command and options correctly. Original broken command example from OP reposted below. My problem is formatting the -regex option, and selecting the appropriate -regextype to do what I need.

# I want to use something like this to prevent the "mv: cannot stat" errors
find /home/USER/files/received/ -regex "/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[0-9]{1,2}|/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[A-Za-z]-[0-9]{1,2}" -exec mv "{}" /home/USER/files/sorted/ \;

                                              

1:
2:

how about adding an "if -f filename" after -exec and before mv ?

sorry if -e

I can't use a static filename. I have to use a regex pattern to identify what I want to operate on.

I need `find /path/to/upload -regextype ???? -regex ???? -exec mv "{}" /path/to/sorted/ \;` to find all of the items matching `grep -E "/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[0-9]{1,2}|/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[A-Za-z]-[0-9]{1,2}"`, directories and files, and move them to them to the /path/to/sorted location. These are photo contest entries uploaded by students, and some entry categories can be either single files or a directory containing a web-page entry, so I don't have any control over the exact filename to be moved, or whether what I want to move is  a file or a directory, other than I want directories to take precedence.

Here is another example of what I might have uploaded by a user in to the /path/to/upload directory.

/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-04.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-05.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.swf
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-02.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/style.css
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/picture.jpg

If you are willing to go an extra line, I think it can easily be don

something like

[root@asd~]# cat script

Ok - let's change the scope of things, as I think we're all missing the main point. I'm trying to concentrate on the -regex option to `find`, but everyone is suggesting other methods of moving the files/directories. I don't have a problem with moving anything - the problem is with writing the -regex option to `find`.

So, now I'm going to change the angle of things just a little to make my goal a little clearer. Given the results of `find /path/to/upload` below, I want to use the -regex option to `find` to filter out items that do not match the pattern `grep -E "/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[0-9]{1,2}|/[Cc]64-[0-9]{1,2}-[A-Za-z]{2,5}-[A-Za-z]-[0-9]{1,2}"`.  I start by trying to piece together something like `find /path/to/upload -regextype posix-basic -regex "*[Cc]64*"` but I don't get any results, as it seems that `find` doesn't like everyday regex syntax, and I'm not sure I've selected the proper -regextype. The intention is to list only the contest entry files/directories that match the pattern (which means they were named correctly for our categorical sorting purposes). Entries that come in that are named such as "picture1.jpg" should not be returned - they will be cleaned up later in the script and the student notified that their entry has file naming errors.

If this is the result of `find /path/to/upload` :
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-04.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-05.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-10-AbcdE-A-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-10-AbcdE-A-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-10-AbcdE-A-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-10-AbcdE-A-04.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.swf
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-02.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/style.css
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/picture.jpg
/path/to/upload/picture1.jpg
/path/to/upload/picture2.jpg
/path/to/upload/picture3.jpg


...then I want to write a `find /path/to/upload -regextype posix-basic -regex "??????"` to filter the list down to only the items matching the pattern in the paragraph above....
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-01-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-04-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-01.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-02.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-03.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-04.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-05-AbcdE-05.jpg
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-01/C64-14-AbcdE-01.swf
/path/to/upload/C64-14-AbcdE-02.mov
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/index.html
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/style.css
/path/to/upload/C64-16-AbcdE-01/picture.jpg