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

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?

Solution 1:

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/ \;

Solution 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.

Solution 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.