Since the permission policy on my device is a bit paranoid (cannot adb pull application data), I wrote a script to copy files recursively.
Note: this recursive file/folder copy script is intended for Android!
copy-r:
#! /system/bin/sh
src="$1"
dst="$2"
dir0=`pwd`
myfind() {
local fpath=$1
if [ -e "$fpath" ]
then
echo $fpath
if [ -d "$fpath" ]
then
for fn in $fpath/*
do
myfind $fn
done
fi
else
: echo "$fpath not found"
fi
}
if [ ! -z "$dst" ]
then
if [ -d "$src" ]
then
echo 'the source is a directory'
mkdir -p $dst
if [[ "$dst" = /* ]]
then
: # Absolute path
else
# Relative path
dst=`pwd`/$dst
fi
cd $src
echo "COPYING files and directories from `pwd`"
for fn in $(myfind .)
do
if [ -d $fn ]
then
echo "DIR $dst/$fn"
mkdir -p $dst/$fn
else
echo "FILE $dst/$fn"
cat $fn >$dst/$fn
fi
done
echo "DONE"
cd $dir0
elif [ -f "$src" ]
then
echo 'the source is a file'
srcn="${src##*/}"
if [ -z "$srcn" ]
then
srcn="$src"
fi
if [[ "$dst" = */ ]]
then
mkdir -p $dst
echo "copying $src" '->' "$dst/$srcn"
cat $src >$dst/$srcn
elif [ -d "$dst" ]
then
echo "copying $src" '->' "$dst/$srcn"
cat $src >$dst/$srcn
else
dstdir=${dst%/*}
if [ ! -z "$dstdir" ]
then
mkdir -p $dstdir
fi
echo "copying $src" '->' "$dst"
cat $src >$dst
fi
else
echo "$src is neither a file nor a directory"
fi
else
echo "Use: copy-r src-dir dst-dir"
echo "Use: copy-r src-file existing-dst-dir"
echo "Use: copy-r src-file dst-dir/"
echo "Use: copy-r src-file dst-file"
fi
Here I provide the source of a lightweight find for Android because on some devices this utility is missing. Instead of myfind one can use find, if it is defined on the device.
Installation:
$ adb push copy-r /sdcard/
Running within adb shell (rooted):
# . /sdcard/copy-r files/ /sdcard/files3
or
# source /sdcard/copy-r files/ /sdcard/files3
(The hash # above is the su prompt, while . is the command that causes the shell to run the specified file, almost the same as source).
After copying, I can adb pull the files from the sd-card.
Writing files to the app directory was trickier, I tried to set r/w permissions on files and its subdirectories, it did not work (well, it allowed me to read, but not write, which is strange), so I had to do:
String[] cmdline = { "sh", "-c", "source /sdcard/copy-r /sdcard/files4 /data/data/com.example.myapp/files" };
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmdline);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
in the application's onCreate().
PS just in case someone needs the code to unprotect application's directories to enable adb shell access on a non-rooted phone,
setRW(appContext.getFilesDir().getParentFile());
public static void setRW(File... files) {
for (File file : files) {
if (file.isDirectory()) {
setRW(file.listFiles()); // Calls same method again.
} else {
}
file.setReadable(true, false);
file.setWritable(true, false);
}
}
although for some unknown reason I could read but not write.