[Recursive and Pattern-Based File Copy or Duplicate Files with Suffixes] #macos #unix #zsh #shellscript #cli #automation #react #typescript

README.md

🧬 Recursive and Pattern-Based File Copy or Duplicate Files with Suffixes (*.tsx)

This guide demonstrates how to programmatically duplicate files with new names based on filename patterns using Zsh scripting.

Common use case: You're working with a codebase using .tsx files (React TypeScript) and need to quickly scaffold variants of each component — like *-skeleton.tsx and *-fallback.tsx files.

---

✅ Goal

For every *.tsx file in a directory (e.g. some-directory), create one or more new files with a modified name, excluding certain patterns to avoid unnecessary duplication.

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📁 Scenario 1: Create *-skeleton.tsx variants for all .tsx files

Original Directory Structure

some-directory/
  ├── A.tsx
  ├── B.tsx
  ├── C.tsx
  └── D.tsx

Desired Outcome

Each .tsx file should have a corresponding *-skeleton.tsx file:

some-directory/
  ├── A.tsx
  ├── A-skeleton.tsx
  ├── B.tsx
  ├── B-skeleton.tsx
  ├── C.tsx
  ├── C-skeleton.tsx
  ├── D.tsx
  └── D-skeleton.tsx

✅ Zsh Command

for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"
done

for f in *.tsx(.N); do [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"; done\n

🔍 Explanation

• for f in *.tsx(.N)

  • Iterates over all .tsx files in the current directory.

  • (.N) is a Zsh glob qualifier:

    • .: plain (non-directory) files only.
    • N: nullglob; prevents errors if no matches are found.

• [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx ]]

  • Skips files that already have -skeleton in the filename.

• touch "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"

  • Creates an empty new file with -skeleton.tsx appended, preserving the original name without .tsx.

---

📁 Scenario 2: Add *-fallback.tsx files, ignoring already-patterned files

Extended Use Case

Now suppose you already have *-skeleton.tsx files and want to also create *-fallback.tsx versions, but only for the original files (i.e. not for files that are already -skeleton.tsx or -fallback.tsx).

Example Input Directory

some-directory/
  ├── A.tsx
  ├── A-skeleton.tsx
  ├── B.tsx
  ├── B-skeleton.tsx
  ├── C.tsx
  ├── C-skeleton.tsx
  ├── D.tsx
  └── D-skeleton.tsx

Desired Outcome

some-directory/
  ├── A.tsx
  ├── A-skeleton.tsx
  ├── A-fallback.tsx
  ├── B.tsx
  ├── B-skeleton.tsx
  ├── B-fallback.tsx
  ├── C.tsx
  ├── C-skeleton.tsx
  ├── C-fallback.tsx
  ├── D.tsx
  ├── D-skeleton.tsx
  └── D-fallback.tsx

✅ Zsh Command

for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx && $f != *-fallback.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"
done

for f in *.tsx(.N); do [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx && $f != *-fallback.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"; done\n

🔍 Explanation

• Adds a second conditional: [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx && $f != *-fallback.tsx ]]

  • Ensures you're only acting on original *.tsx files, not previously generated skeleton or fallback versions.

• Creates *-fallback.tsx files using the same basename as the source file.

---

🛠️ Notes

• These examples assume you are running the command inside the some-directory folder.
• You can adjust the script to run recursively or across multiple folders with additional scripting logic (e.g., find, zargs, or custom scripts).
• Ensure you're using Zsh, not Bash, since glob qualifiers like (.N) are specific to Zsh.

---

📦 Bonus: Combine Both Steps

# Create -skeleton.tsx files
for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"
done

# Create -fallback.tsx files
for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx && $f != *-fallback.tsx ]] && touch "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"
done

---

📁 Scenario 3: Duplicate *.tsx Files and Copy Content (*-skeleton.tsx, *-fallback.tsx)

Instead of creating empty files, this variation copies the original contents of each .tsx file into its -skeleton.tsx and/or -fallback.tsx counterparts.

✅ Zsh Command

# Create -skeleton.tsx files with copied content
for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx ]] && cp "$f" "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"
done

# Create -fallback.tsx files with copied content
for f in *.tsx(.N); do
  [[ $f != *-skeleton.tsx && $f != *-fallback.tsx ]] && cp "$f" "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"
done

🔍 Explanation

• cp "$f" "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx": Uses cp instead of touch to copy the file contents into the new filename.
• Maintains the same logic to skip already existing skeleton or fallback files.

---

📁 Scenario 4: Recursively Duplicate Files in Subdirectories

In this advanced case, the duplication should occur recursively, affecting all .tsx files in some-directory and its subfolders.

This version uses find and zsh-compatible substitution to replicate the previous behaviour across a nested structure.

✅ Recursive with touch (empty files)

find some-directory -type f -name '*.tsx' ! -name '*-skeleton.tsx' -exec sh -c 'for f; do touch "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"; done' _ {} +
find some-directory -type f -name '*.tsx' ! -name '*-skeleton.tsx' ! -name '*-fallback.tsx' -exec sh -c 'for f; do touch "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"; done' _ {} +

✅ Recursive with cp (copy content)

find some-directory -type f -name '*.tsx' ! -name '*-skeleton.tsx' -exec sh -c 'for f; do cp "$f" "${f%.tsx}-skeleton.tsx"; done' _ {} +
find some-directory -type f -name '*.tsx' ! -name '*-skeleton.tsx' ! -name '*-fallback.tsx' -exec sh -c 'for f; do cp "$f" "${f%.tsx}-fallback.tsx"; done' _ {} +

🔍 Explanation

• find some-directory -type f -name '*.tsx': Recursively finds .tsx files.
• ! -name '*-skeleton.tsx': Excludes skeleton files.
• -exec sh -c '...' _ {} +: Batches the matched files into a mini shell where you loop over them and apply the copy or touch logic.