Flatten directory

To flatten a unix directory structure (indir) one can use find with -exec-parameter:

$ find indir -iname '*.jpg' -exec cp {} outdir/ \;

outdir should not be inside of indir to avoid recursion hell. If copying needs too much space generating hard links instead is a good idea:

$ find indir -iname '*.jpg' -exec ln '{}' outdir/ \;

This is especially useful when generating folders for photo slide shows.

• http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?find
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27621/unix-shell-file-copy-flattening-folder-structure
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/185899/what-is-the-difference-between-a-symbolic-link-and-a-hard-link