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Can anyone suggest an approach to check for files existence using only their extension? For example, I need to check if in a given directory are files with the extension *.cls, and if yes copy all these files in another location.

You might want to use find: `find . -name \*.tgz -exec cp {} /path/to/new/location'

This will look for .tgz files in the current directory and copy them to path/to/new/location.
Be aware that it searches recursivly, so you would need to define the maxdepth parameter:

find . -maxdepth 1 -name \*.tgz -exec

Two examples:

Thank you for your suggestion. It works fine, but the command should look like this: find . -name \*.tgz -exec cp '{}' /path/to/new/location \;
Another question: is it possible to know when the files with the extension *.tgz (following the above example) are not found and in this case display a message?

My goal is to write a script for LaTeX class installation. Here is its source, but be aware that is not yet working:

#!/bin/bash

ROOT_UID=0 # Only users with $UID 0 have root privileges.
E_NOTROOT=67 # Non-root exit error.
E_WRONGARGS=65 # Bad argument error
E_FAILURE=-1
E_SUCCESS=0

O_BIB="-b"
O_BST="-t"

BASE_DIR=/usr/share/texmf/ # LaTeX base directory
CLS_DIR=tex/latex/ # directory for class installation
BIB_DIR=bibtex/bib/ # directory for *.bib file(s) installation
BST_DIR=bibtex/bst/ # directory for *.bst file(s) installation
SRC_CLS_DIR="" # source directory for *.cls or *.sty file(s)
SRC_BIB_DIR="" # source directory for *.bib file(s)
SRC_BST_DIR="" # source directory for *.bst file(s)

# Run as root
if [ "$UID" -ne "$ROOT_UID" ]; then
echo "Must be root to run this script."
exit $E_NOTROOT
fi

# Check for inputs
case "$1" in
"") # no parameter
echo "At least one parameter required !"
echo "use `basename $0` class_name"
echo "or `basename $0` $O_BIB class_name, for *.bib file(s)"
echo "or `basename $0` $O_BST class_name, for *.bib and *.bst file(s)"
exit $E_WRONGARGS ;;
"$O_BIB") # install *.bib file(s)
CLS_NAME=$2
if [ -z "$CLS_NAME" ]; then
echo "You must provide the class name"
exit $E_FAILURE
fi
read -p "What is the path to the LaTeX class you want to install ? " SRC_CLS_DIR
read -p "What is the path to the *.bib file(s) you want to install ? " SRC_BIB_DIR ;;
"$O_BST") # install *.bib and *.bst file(s)
CLS_NAME=$2
if [ -z "$CLS_NAME" ]; then
echo "You must provide the class name"
exit $E_FAILURE
fi
read -p "What is the path to the LaTeX class you want to install ? " SRC_CLS_DIR
read -p "What is the path to the *.bib and *.bst file(s) you want to install ? " SRC_BIB_DIR
SRC_BST_DIR=$SRC_BIB_DIR ;;
*) # install class
CLS_NAME=$1
read -p "What is the path to the LaTeX class you want to install ? " SRC_CLS_DIR
esac

mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME"

find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.cls -exec cp '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;
if [ $? ]; then
echo "*.cls file(s) installed."
fi

find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.sty -exec cp '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;
if [ $? ]; then
echo "*.sty file(s) installed."
fi

if [ -n "$SRC_BIB_DIR" ]; then
mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$BIB_DIR""$CLS_NAME"
cp "$SRC_BIB_DIR"/*.bib "$BASE_DIR""$BIB_DIR""$CLS_NAME"
echo "*.bib file(s) installed."
fi

if [ -n "$SRC_BST_DIR" ]; then
mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$BST_DIR""$CLS_NAME"
cp "$SRC_BST_DIR"/*.bst "$BASE_DIR""$BST_DIR""$CLS_NAME"
echo "*.bst file(s) installed."
fi

echo "Updating database ..."
texhash

exit $E_SUCCESS

Disclaimer: I didn't put a lot of thought into this, so it's a dirty hack... but it should give you a general idea...

If you want error checking (such as telling you if nothing is found) you may want to use ls to build your list:



There are lots of ways to do it... this is probably one of the less elegant ones...

EDIT: come to think of it, you could also just use find and pipe the output to a file instead of running exec in the find command.

Here is my script for LaTeX class installation. Any suggestions are welcomed:

#!/bin/bash

ROOT_UID=0 # Only users with $UID 0 have root privileges.
E_NOTROOT=67 # Non-root exit error.
E_WRONGARGS=65 # Bad argument error
E_SUCCESS=0

BASE_DIR=/usr/share/texmf/ # LaTeX base directory
CLS_DIR=tex/latex/ # directory for class installation
BIB_DIR=bibtex/bib/ # directory for *.bib file(s) installation
BST_DIR=bibtex/bst/ # directory for *.bst file(s) installation
SRC_CLS_DIR="" # source directory for file(s) to install

# Run as root
if [ "$UID" -ne "$ROOT_UID" ]; then
echo "Must be root to run this script."
exit $E_NOTROOT
fi

# Check for inputs
case "$1" in
"") # no parameter
echo "One parameter required! Use: `basename $0` class_name"
exit $E_WRONGARGS ;;
*) # get class name and ask for directory to look in for file(s) to install
CLS_NAME=$1
read -p "Path to the LaTeX class you want to install ? " SRC_CLS_DIR
esac

#install *.cls files if any (search in the current directory)
find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.cls -exec mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \; -exec cp -v -u '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;

#install *.sty files if any (search in the current directory)
find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -name \*.sty -exec mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \; -exec cp -v -u '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$CLS_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;

#install *.bib files if any (search in the current directory and in the directory below)
find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 2 -name \*.bib -exec mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$BIB_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \; -exec cp -v -u '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$BIB_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;

#install *.bst files if any (search in the current directory and in the directory below)
find "$SRC_CLS_DIR" -maxdepth 2 -name \*.bst -exec mkdir -p "$BASE_DIR""$BST_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \; -exec cp -v -u '{}' "$BASE_DIR""$BST_DIR""$CLS_NAME" \;

#update database
texhash

exit $E_SUCCESS