Copying from mount share drive to local folder through script

Question

This is my first time trying to work with Linux Scripts so this may be something obvious.

Here is what I am trying to do:

1. Remove all contents from local folder - rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/
2. Copy files from a shared windows network drive - cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/

So from my understanding my command should look like this

  rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/
  cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

But anytime I try and run either of the above commands I get the following error:

  "rm: cannot remove `/home/user/Documents/Exercise/': Is a directory"
  "cp: cannot stat `smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/': No such file or directory"

What am I doing wrong?

Kind Regards,

M

Answer 1

Based on your request and your test, let me point what is not written properly:

---

Remove all contents from local folder

rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

Error says rm: cannot remove /home/user/Documents/Exercise/': Is a directory

You should

  rm /home/user/Documents/Exercise/*

which will delete everything inside the directory, but not the directory.

---

Copy files from a shared windows network drive

  cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

Error says cp: cannot stat smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/': No such file or directory

You should check if route smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/ is correct. Then, use the following:

cp smb://server/arc/Exercise%20Files/Word/* /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

Answer 2

You can't delete a directory if it has content within it. To delete the content and the directory at the same time, use the following command:

rm -r /home/user/Documents/Exercise/

This recursively deletes the directory and any content within it.

To copy the file, I believe you have to mount the directory beforehand, like so:

mount -t cifs //server/share /mnt/mount_directory -o user=username

Can you confirm if that works?

Answer 3

Remove / Delete Command: rm -rfv /home/user/Documents/Exercise/*

Copy Command: cp -rfv /home/user/Documents/ExerciseShare/ExerciseFiles/Word/ /home/user/Documents/Exercise/