linux - matching files to folders

Can linux scan two directories? Once scanned match the two directories based on similarities in the file name and transfer files.

I'm looking to transfer file "directory"/seq0001.pdf to folder "different directory"/001 and "directory"/seq0002.pdf to folder "different directory"/002 e.t.c

When newly incremented file number is created I would like to move that new file to the new directory.

The new folder doesn't need to be made. As when there is a new file some other job is putting information in this folder and creates the new folder.

I know how to do a straight move function but that would only work for the specified files. Can you move the files by a match rather than having to manually move the files every time?

There might be a way to shorten this (actually, there are a ton of good alternatives for parsing the file name; check out this question - I will update here as soon as I get a chance), but one way is to first create a script that handles a single file. For example, save the following as move.sh:

#!/bin/sh
subdir=`echo -n "${1%.*}" | tail -c3`
mv -v "$1" "/path/to/$subdir"

Adjust to taste. That will take take the part of the filename before the last "." and use the rightmost three characters as the target directory (e.g. "seq0002.pdf" goes to "/path/to/002").

The chmod 755 move.sh to make it executable.

I recommend putting that script in a different directory so it doesn't interfere. Then you can use e.g. find to execute it on all files, or just run it on one file at a time, e.g.:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec /wherever/move.sh {} \;

Or for one file (and assuming move.sh is in current directory):

./move.sh seq0001.pdf

If you want to choose more complex paths you can extend the script, e.g.:

#!/bin/sh
subdir=`echo -n "${1%.*}" | tail -c3`

if [ $subdir = "001" ] ; then
    rootdir="/directory";
elif [ $subdir = "002" ] ; then
    rootdir="/another/place";
else
    rootdir="/default/root";
fi

mv -v "$1" "$rootdir/$subdir"

Again adjusting to taste. The possibilities are fairly limitless.