[svlug] Script to split a large directory into smaller directories

[Chris Palmer]

Akbar S. Ahmed writes:

> >I have a directory tree that is approx. 9GB that I need to split into
> >approx. 4.7GB size chunks so that the data can be burned to DVD. I
> >know that I'm definitely not the first person to try this.

I could use a thing like this myself, and I don't mind writing it. What
language do people prefer? I'm a Python zealot, but I think Perl is
probably best for this task. I highly disprefer sh, but if a majority of
people say that's most useful for them (such as Free and NetBSD users
who don't have Perl installed by default), I'll do it in sh.

Is it acceptable to copy the data in the directory to a new location, or 
must it be rearranged in place? Or should this be a runtime option?

Here's what I'm thinking for a user interface:

    $ dirchunk chunk-size big-dir [new-dir]

If no new-dir is given, the data will be rearranged in place.

Thoughts?


-- 
Chris Palmer     Systems Administrator     Electronic Frontier Foundation