How Can I Merge Multiple Directories into One

Solution 1:

Using find + xargs + mv:

find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I file mv --backup=numbered file .

This will move all the files in the current working directory and its subdirectories (recursively) into the current working directory, numbering files with the same filename numerically in order to avoid overwrites of files with the same filename.

Sample result on a tmp folder with a 1, 2 and 3 subfolders each containing a 1.ext, 2.ext and 3.ext file:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/tmp$ tree
.
├── 1
│   ├── 1.ext
│   ├── 2.ext
│   └── 3.ext
├── 2
│   ├── 1.ext
│   ├── 2.ext
│   └── 3.ext
└── 3
    ├── 1.ext
    ├── 2.ext
    └── 3.ext

3 directories, 9 files
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/tmp$ find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I file mv --backup=numbered file .
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/tmp$ tree
.
├── 1
├── 1.ext
├── 1.ext.~1~
├── 1.ext.~2~
├── 2
├── 2.ext
├── 2.ext.~1~
├── 2.ext.~2~
├── 3
├── 3.ext
├── 3.ext.~1~
└── 3.ext.~2~

3 directories, 9 files

Solution 2:

If your directory structure looks like

dir root

• dir A
  • file a
  • file b
• dir B
  • file c
  • file d

and so on

you can do a simple

mv **/* .

to move all files at depth 1 to the root dir. Simple and Elegant!