Copy Queue

• Author: Laszlo Szathmary, 2013 (jabba.laci@gmail.com)
• Website: http://ubuntuincident.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/cpq-and-mvq/
• GitHub: https://github.com/jabbalaci/Copy-Queue

A command line "cp" and "mv" that use a queue.

Warning! I don't take any responsibility for any loss of data. Use these scripts at your own risk.

Target operating systems: Unix/Linux. Tested with Python 2.7.

Usage

cpq file1 /trash/movies/
cpq file2 /trash/movies
mvq file3 /trash/movies/

All the three files are put in a queue and only one is processed at a given time.

Motivation

If you launch the previous 3 commands with "cp" and "mv" in the background, then all three will run concurrently, thus your machine will slow down because of the I/O operations. If you launch them in the foreground, then you have to wait until one finishes and then you can start the next one.

You can always use a graphical file manager that supports a copy queue but I prefer to work in bash in combination with the good old Midnight Commander. And in MC I didn't find this feature.

Installation

In the file config.py you can customize all the directory and file paths. For an easier understanding, I will explain the usage of the scripts with the default values.

First, clone this project to the following directory: $HOME/python/Copy-Queue.

Then create the directory $HOME/bin and add these two symbolic links:

cd $HOME/bin
ln -s $HOME/python/Copy-Queue/cpq_mvq.py cpq
ln -s $HOME/python/Copy-Queue/cpq_mvq.py mvq

Make sure that $HOME/bin is in your PATH.

Finally, create the directory $HOME/bin/copy_queue.

Now you are ready to use "cpq" and "mvq".

Tips

If there is a directory where you copy/move very often, then you can add this directory to your .bashrc file. For instance, I copy a lot of videos to my Android phone, thus I created the following shortcut in my .bashrc:

# Android's Video directory
A='/media/jabba/2B9A-EB28/Video'
export A

Then I can copy videos to my Android this way:

cpq movie.avi $A

Another tip: the scripts create a log file. If you want to see the copy/move progress, create the following alias:

alias Q='tail -f $HOME/bin/copy_queue/daemon.log'

To check if the tasks are finished, just launch Q:

$ Q

Update (20170415)

I found today a simple Unix batch system called task spooler (AUR, PPA). Task spooler is more general than my approach since you can send any Unix command in its queue. Task spooler is a better solution than mine. It also provides more options, so I suggest using task spooler. Here is a short video about its usage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv8D8wT20ZY.