Rename multiple files


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Rename multiple files
# 1  
Old 05-19-2013
Rename multiple files

Hi,

In my directory I have many files, for e.g.

Code:
file_123
file_124
file_125
file_126
file_127

Instead of renaming these files one by one, I would like to rename them at a same time using same command... they should appear like

Code:
123
124
125
126
127

What command(awk or ls or anything...) should work here?

regards,
juzz4fun
# 2  
Old 05-19-2013
The simple thing is to just use bash, ksh, or any other POSIX conforming shell (I used ksh for this example):
Code:
#!/bin/ksh
for i in file_*
do      echo mv "$i" "${i#file_}"
done

if the commands printed are what you are trying to do, remove the "echo " so the script will actually move the files. With the files in the current directory you listed, the output produced is:
Code:
mv file_123 123
mv file_124 124
mv file_125 125
mv file_126 126
mv file_127 127

This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
# 3  
Old 05-20-2013
Thanks a ton... Smilie

By the way, I guess ${i#"...."} removes the string in double quotes...what if I want to add some string... like

Code:
folder_123
folder_124
folder_125
folder_126
folder_127

regards,
juzz4fun
# 4  
Old 05-20-2013
I'm not sure I understand your question. If you man you want to move file_123 to folder_123 and instead of just removing file_, try:
Code:
#!/bin/ksh
for i in file_*
do      mv "$i" "folder${i#file}"
done

The expansion of ${i#string} removes string from the start of the expansion of $i if the expansion of $i starts with string; otherwise, it just results in the expansion of $i. (If string contains filename pattern matching special characters it is more complex than that, but in this case there are no special characters in the pattern.)
This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

Rename multiple files in one go

OS : Oracle Linux 6.8 shell : bash As shown below, I have multiple files like below (query1-extract_aa, query1-extract_ab, query1-extract_ac, ....) $ ls -l total 235680 -rw-rw-r-- 1 reportusr reportusr 30M May 3 11:25 query1-extract_aa -rw-rw-r-- 1 reportusr reportusr 30M May 3 11:25... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: kraljic
5 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

SBATCH trinity for multiple files and rename/move the output files

Hey guys, I have wrote the following script to apply a module named "trinity" on my files. (it takes two input files and spit a trinity.fasta as output) #!/bin/bash -l #SBATCH -p node #SBATCH -A <projectID> #SBATCH -n 16 #SBATCH -t 7-00:00:00 #SBATCH --mem=128GB #SBATCH --mail-type=ALL... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: @man
1 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Rename a multiple files

I have multiple files in folder which i want to rename. hence I am using the below command in my script by I get an error: export XXX_LOG_DIR="${LOG_DIR}/${XXX_HOST}/xxx/${REPORT_DATE}" mv $XXX_LOG_DIR/*.audit.gz $XXX_LOG_DIR/*.audit.log.gz But I get the below error: mv: target... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: karan8810
5 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

How to rename multiple files at one go?

Hi, I have hundreds of files with XXX in their file name and I want to rename all of them with YYY in place of XXX. for ex: $ ls -1 123XXX789 345XXX678 Output $ ls -1 123YYY789 345YYY678 I know we can loop in each file and sed to replace and rename each file but ren *XXX* *YYY*... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: reddyr
4 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Rename multiple files

hello: I have multiple files with names like: somestring_y2010m01d01 somestring_y2010m01d02 .......... somestring_y2010m12d31 How... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: sylcam
4 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

help with multiple files rename...

Hi everyone, I'm very green in Linux. Please help me to solve my problem. I have thousands of files and I want to change their names. They have naming convection: prefix_date_date+1_suffix.nc prefix: ext-GLORY date_date+1: 20020101_20020102 and two types of suffix: gridV_R20020130 and... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: makikicindy
3 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How to rename multiple files

Hi all, I have some files like: pickup.0000043200.t001.t001.data pickup.0000043200.t001.t002.data pickup.0000043200.t002.t001.data pickup.0000043200.t002.t002.data pickup.0000043200.t003.t001.data pickup.0000043200.t003.t002.data I need to rename these files to ... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: a_dor8
4 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

now to rename multiple files

I have several hundred files in one directory which I need to move to another directory with the new extension, for example: /bb/data/rptmgr* are in the source directory need to be moved to /bb/data55/rptmgr*.new Is there an efficient way to do it? Thanks -A (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: aoussenko
4 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

rename multiple files

Hi, can anyone have a ksh script to rename multiple files (ie to remove .Z extension of the files) can someone correct this? for i in *.Z do var1 = substr($i, 1,at(".Z",$i)-1) mv $i $var1 done Thanks.. Antony (13 Replies)
Discussion started by: antointoronto
13 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Rename multiple files

Hello, I want to rename multiple files at a time and I don't know how to do it. I have various ".mp3" files, like "band name - music name.mp3" and I want to remove the "band name" from all files. Anybody knows how to do it using shell script or sed or even perl? Thanks (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: luiz_fer10
7 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question