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For testing a tool I need a directory with a whole bunch of different Office files in a deep nested structure. I already have the files in a directory, but now need to create some random nested sub directories and spread out the files in them.
I could sit down and write a proper program in a programming language of my choice, but I wonder if there might be a clever combination of Linux command line tools + Bash to achieve what I want.
Edit: to clarify, my input is a directory with a about 200 files. The output should be a directory hierarchy containing these files more or less evenly spread. Directory names should be more than single letters, vary randomly in length and use various allowed characters (utf-8 filesystem).
916
None of these solutions were fast enough since they rely on bash, so I created a Rust crate that generates pseudo-random directory hierarchies: https://crates.io/crates/ftzz.
Note that I only cared about the hierarchy itself, not its contents, so this program creates empty files or files filled with random data.
102
This is a script that generate a random dir structure :
#!/bin/bash
# Decimal ASCII codes (see man ascii)
ARR=( {48..57} {65..90} {97..122} )
# Array count
arrcount=${#ARR[@]}
# return a random string
get_rand_dir(){
for ((i=1; i<$((RANDOM%30)); i++)) {
printf \\$(printf '%03o' ${ARR[RANDOM%arrcount]});
}
}
dir=/tmp/
# appending random characters to make a hierarchy
for ((i=0; i<$((RANDOM%100)); i++)) {
dir+="$(get_rand_dir)/"
}
echo $dir
mkdir -p "$dir"
oldir=$(echo "$dir" | cut -d '/' -f1-3)
while [[ $dir ]]; do
dir=${dir%/*}
cd $dir
for ((i=0; i<$((RANDOM%100)); i++)) {
mkdir &>/dev/null -p $(get_rand_dir)
}
done
tree "$oldir"
OUTPUT
/tmp/x
├── egeDVPW
├── iOkr
├── l
├── o1gye8uF
├── q
│ ├── 4Dlrfagv
│ ├── 4Yxmoqf
│ ├── 8LkyIrXA
│ ├── 8m9kse8s
│ ├── aV
│ ├── in
│ │ ├── 12zdLso68HWlPK
│ │ │ ├── C
│ │ │ ├── DOYt8wUW
│ │ │ ├── FXP
│ │ │ ├── hFLem8
│ │ │ ├── hhHIv
│ │ │ ├── iD87kxs54x04
│ │ │ ├── oFM
│ │ │ ├── OjFT
Now you can create an array of dirs :
shopt -s globstar # require bash4
dirs=( /tmp/x/** )
printf '%s\n' ${dirs[@]}
and populate dirs with files randomly. You have enough examples to do so. I've done the most hard work.
44
You can use bash brace-expansion:
mkdir -p {a,b}/{e,f,g}/{h,i,j}
├───a
│ ├───e
│ │ ├───h
│ │ ├───i
│ │ └───j
│ ├───f
│ │ ├───h
│ │ ├───i
│ │ └───j
│ └───g
│ ├───h
│ ├───i
│ └───j
└───b
├───e
│ ├───h
│ ├───i
│ └───j
├───f
│ ├───h
│ ├───i
│ └───j
└───g
├───h
├───i
└───j
Thanks to all who posted here; it turns out, it wasn't really trivial to escape filenames with special characters, so I built my own script based on those here; here is how it behaves with special character filenames:
$ ~/rndtree.sh ./rndpath 0 3 1
Warning: will create random tree at: ./rndpath
Proceed (y/n)? y
Removing old outdir ./rndpath
mkdir -p ./rndpath/";"/{")?DxVBBJ{w2","L,|+","^VC)Vn.6!"}/"D+,IFJ( LN"
> > > > > > > > > > >
./rndpath
└── [ 4096] ;
├── [ 4096] )?DxVBBJ{w2
│ ├── [ 4096] D+,IFJ( LN
│ │ └── [ 929] r2.bin
│ ├── [ 8557] %3fsaG# Rl;ffXf.bin
│ └── [ 19945] Dzk .bin
├── [ 4096] L,|+
│ ├── [ 4096] D+,IFJ( LN
│ │ ├── [ 2325] 6Qg#pe5j'&ji49oqrO.bin
│ │ ├── [ 16345] #?.bin
│ │ └── [ 2057] Uz-0XtLVWz#}0lI.bin
│ ├── [ 2543] bbtA-^s22vdTu.bin
│ └── [ 10848] K46+kh7L9.bin
├── [ 4096] ^VC)Vn.6!
│ ├── [ 4096] D+,IFJ( LN
│ ├── [ 10502] 8yY,MqZ ^5+_SA^.r4{.bin
│ └── [ 17628] ipO"|69.bin
└── [ 12376] a2Y% }G1.qDir.bin
7 directories, 11 files
total bytes: 136823 ./rndpath
and here with a safe subset of ASCII:
$ ~/rndtree.sh ./rndpath 1 3 1
Warning: will create random tree at: ./rndpath
Proceed (y/n)? y
Removing old outdir ./rndpath
mkdir -p ./rndpath/"48SLS"/{"nyG","jIC6vj"}/{"PSLd5tMn","V R"}
> > > > > > >
./rndpath
├── [ 4096] 48SLS
│ ├── [ 4096] jIC6vj
│ │ ├── [ 4096] PSLd5tMn
│ │ ├── [ 4096] V R
│ │ │ ├── [ 922] lg.bin
│ │ │ └── [ 9600] VVYG.bin
│ │ ├── [ 10883] B7nt06p.bin
│ │ └── [ 19339] g5uT i.bin
│ ├── [ 4096] nyG
│ │ ├── [ 4096] PSLd5tMn
│ │ └── [ 4096] V R
│ │ └── [ 6128] 1tfLR.bin
│ └── [ 5448] Jda.bin
└── [ 18196] KwEXu2O2H9s.bin
Spaces should be handled in both cases - however, note that subdirectory names repeat (while filenames do not).
The script rndtree.sh:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13400312/linux-create-random-directory-file-hierarchy
# Decimal ASCII codes (see man ascii); added space
AARR=( 32 {48..57} {65..90} {97..122} )
# Array count
aarrcount=${#AARR[@]}
if [ "$1" == "" ] ; then
OUTDIR="./rndpath" ;
else
OUTDIR="$1" ;
fi
if [ "$2" != "" ] ; then
ASCIIONLY="$2" ;
else
ASCIIONLY=1 ;
fi
if [ "$3" != "" ] ; then
DIRDEPTH="$3" ;
else
DIRDEPTH=3 ;
fi
if [ "$4" != "" ] ; then
MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS="$4" ;
else
MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS=2 ;
fi
if [ "$5" != "" ] ; then
MAXDIRCHILDREN="$5" ;
else
MAXDIRCHILDREN=4 ;
fi
if [ "$6" != "" ] ; then
MAXDIRNAMELEN="$6" ;
else
MAXDIRNAMELEN=12 ;
fi
if [ "$7" != "" ] ; then
MAXFILECHILDREN="$7" ;
else
MAXFILECHILDREN=4 ;
fi
if [ "$8" != "" ] ; then
MAXFILENAMELEN="$8" ;
else
MAXFILENAMELEN=20 ;
fi
if [ "$9" != "" ] ; then
MAXFILESIZE="$9" ;
else
MAXFILESIZE=20000 ;
fi
MINDIRNAMELEN=1
MINFILENAMELEN=1
MINDIRCHILDREN=1
MINFILECHILDREN=0
MINFILESIZE=1
FILEEXT=".bin"
VERBOSE=0 #1
get_rand_dirname() {
if [ "$ASCIIONLY" == "1" ]; then
for ((i=0; i<$((MINDIRNAMELEN+RANDOM%MAXDIRNAMELEN)); i++)) {
printf \\$(printf '%03o' ${AARR[RANDOM%aarrcount]});
}
else
cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc '[ -~]' | tr -d '[$></~:`\\]' | head -c$((MINDIRNAMELEN + RANDOM % MAXDIRNAMELEN)) | sed 's/\(["]\)/\\\1/g'
fi
#echo -e " " # debug last dirname space
}
get_rand_filename() {
if [ "$ASCIIONLY" == "1" ]; then
for ((i=0; i<$((MINFILENAMELEN+RANDOM%MAXFILENAMELEN)); i++)) {
printf \\$(printf '%03o' ${AARR[RANDOM%aarrcount]});
}
else
# no need to escape double quotes for filename
cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc '[ -~]' | tr -d '[$></~:`\\]' | head -c$((MINFILENAMELEN + RANDOM % MAXFILENAMELEN)) #| sed 's/\(["]\)/\\\1/g'
fi
printf "%s" $FILEEXT
}
echo "Warning: will create random tree at: $OUTDIR"
[ "$VERBOSE" == "1" ] && echo " MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS $MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS ASCIIONLY $ASCIIONLY DIRDEPTH $DIRDEPTH MAXDIRCHILDREN $MAXDIRCHILDREN MAXDIRNAMELEN $MAXDIRNAMELEN MAXFILECHILDREN $MAXFILECHILDREN MAXFILENAMELEN $MAXFILENAMELEN MAXFILESIZE $MAXFILESIZE"
read -p "Proceed (y/n)? " READANS
if [ "$READANS" != "y" ]; then
exit
fi
if [ -d "$OUTDIR" ]; then
echo "Removing old outdir $OUTDIR"
rm -rf "$OUTDIR"
fi
mkdir "$OUTDIR"
if [ $MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS -gt 0 ]; then
NUMFIRSTLEVELDIRS=$((1+RANDOM%MAXFIRSTLEVELDIRS))
else
NUMFIRSTLEVELDIRS=0
fi
# create directories
for (( ifl=0;ifl<$((NUMFIRSTLEVELDIRS));ifl++ )) {
FLDIR="$(get_rand_dirname)"
FLCHILDREN="";
for (( ird=0;ird<$((DIRDEPTH-1));ird++ )) {
DIRCHILDREN=""; MOREDC=0;
for ((idc=0; idc<$((MINDIRCHILDREN+RANDOM%MAXDIRCHILDREN)); idc++)) {
CDIR="$(get_rand_dirname)" ;
# make sure comma is last, so brace expansion works even for 1 element? that can mess with expansion math, though
if [ "$DIRCHILDREN" == "" ]; then DIRCHILDREN="\"$CDIR\"" ;
else DIRCHILDREN="$DIRCHILDREN,\"$CDIR\"" ; MOREDC=1 ; fi
}
if [ "$MOREDC" == "1" ] ; then
if [ "$FLCHILDREN" == "" ]; then FLCHILDREN="{$DIRCHILDREN}" ;
else FLCHILDREN="$FLCHILDREN/{$DIRCHILDREN}" ; fi
else
if [ "$FLCHILDREN" == "" ]; then FLCHILDREN="$DIRCHILDREN" ;
else FLCHILDREN="$FLCHILDREN/$DIRCHILDREN" ; fi
fi
}
DIRCMD="mkdir -p $OUTDIR/\"$FLDIR\"/$FLCHILDREN"
eval "$DIRCMD"
echo "$DIRCMD"
}
# now loop through all directories, create random files inside
# note printf '%q' escapes to preserve spaces; also here
# escape, and don't wrap path parts in double quotes (e.g. | sed 's_/_"/"_g');
# note then we STILL have to eval to use it!
# but now ls "$D" works, so noneed for QD
# unfortunately backslashes can make '%q' barf - prevent them
find "$OUTDIR" -type d | while IFS= read D ; do
QD="$(printf '%q' "$(echo "$D")" )" ;
[ "$VERBOSE" == "1" ] && echo "$D"; #echo "$QD"; ls -la "$D"; #eval "ls -la $QD";
for ((ifc=0; ifc<$((MINFILECHILDREN+RANDOM%MAXFILECHILDREN)); ifc++)) {
CFILE="$(get_rand_filename)" ;
echo -n '> '
[ "$VERBOSE" == "1" ] && echo "$D"/"$CFILE"
cat /dev/urandom \
| head -c$((MINFILESIZE + RANDOM % MAXFILESIZE)) \
> "$D"/"$CFILE"
}
done
echo
tree -a --dirsfirst -s "$OUTDIR"
echo "total bytes: $(du -bs $(echo "$OUTDIR"))"
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