Getting error by renaming all the files in a folder


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Getting error by renaming all the files in a folder
# 1  
Old 04-10-2008
Getting error by renaming all the files in a folder

Hi All,

I have a folder name as postscript folder and it contains the following postscript files.

package1.ps
package2.ps
package3.ps


when i am renaming all the ps files to xps files by using the following command

mv /postscript/*.ps /postscript/*.xps

Then i am getting the following error.

mv: /postscript/*.xps not found
# 2  
Old 04-10-2008
Check Path

Quote:
Originally Posted by sunitachoudhury
Hi All,

I have a folder name as postscript folder and it contains the following postscript files.

package1.ps
package2.ps
package3.ps


when i am renaming all the ps files to xps files by using the following command

mv /postscript/*.ps /postscript/*.xps

Then i am getting the following error.

mv: /postscript/*.xps not found
Check with the path, you have mentioned /postscript and probably your folder is not in root directory.
# 3  
Old 04-10-2008
yes my folder is present in the root directory...

I already checked that one. then also i am getting the error........

please help me........
# 4  
Old 04-10-2008
The problem is a general misconception about how the commandline is evaluated. an asterisk ("*") is evaluated to a list of files by the shell! So, if there are the three files you mentioned in the directory what the mv command will get is (i skip the directories as they are not relevant):

mv package1.ps package2.ps package3.ps *.xps

As "*.xps" cannot be evaluated (by the time you issue the command there are no files named "*.xps") the error occurs. And even if it wouldn't occur (suppose you would have some *.xps files in the directory) the result would probably not be what you wanted to achieve. What you really want to do is:

mv package1.ps package1.xps
mv package2.ps package2.xps
...

For occasions like this use a little loop:

Code:
cd /postscript
for file in $(ls *.ps) ; do         # this sets the "file" variable to one filename after the other
     mv ${file%.*} ${file%.*}.xps   # ${file%.*} cuts off the point and everything that follows from $file
done

I hope this helps.

bakunin
# 5  
Old 04-10-2008
hai sunita
this is suvendu here
for renaming this u have e easy option like this:
find . -name "*.ps"|sed 's/.ps/.xps/g'
do like this u will find the result
thank u
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Renaming files - error

set -vx for i in ~/Shell_Practice/rename/*.txt do t=`(echo $i | awk gsub("file","newfile"))` mv $i $t done while running the above code getting below error.Please help. atomic@atomic-VirtualBox:~/Shell_Practice/rename$ ./rename.sh for i in ~/Shell_Practice/rename/*.txt ... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: nag_sathi
8 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Renaming files & folder according to the similarities in filenames

hello does someone want to help me for this one ? i want to rename files & a folder according to the similarities in filenames for example : the file with the good name cglogo tougl1953 dgmel bogd 01 -- ttgductoog ggdté gollogtd.ext1the others files needed to be renamed cglogo... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: mc2z674gj
5 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Renaming files in a folder

Hi, I have 1000 *.txt files in a folder and I would like to rename them data1.txt through data1000.txt. The order does not matter or the names of the initial input files. How would I go about doing that? Thanks! (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: evelibertine
1 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Renaming files in a folder

Hi, Hope someone can help... I'm pretty much new to unix and can only do basic commands. I have an issue where by every day I need to schedule a job to look in a folder with a name format of .IP. will be different each day (when the day is over the folder extension changes), and rename any... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: Harsharan
5 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Help with renaming files in folder

Hello, I want to rename more than 100 files. These files have "?" in there existing file name but I want to rename files to there first part before "?" token. I have tried using for loop but it isn't working so help following is the sample filename and for loop that am trying to use: example of... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: ls_lrta
3 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Renaming multiple files in a folder

Hi All, I am trying to change the XML filename in a folder to the rootelement in the XML file. Example: TestMsg2010-10-19_20_20_54.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <R1Msg TimeStamp="2010-10-19T08:49:08.000000Z> <TestRec> <ID>1000</ID> </TestRec> </R1Msg> Wanted to extract the... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: sree_chari
8 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

renaming files or adding a name in the beginning of all files in a folder

Hi All I have a folder that contains hundreds of file with a names 3.msa 4.msa 21.msa 6.msa 345.msa 456.msa 98.msa ... ... ... I need rename each of this file by adding "core_" in the begiining of each file such as core_3.msa core_4.msa core_21.msa (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: Lucky Ali
4 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Renaming multiple files in a folder

Hi , Need help to rename the files in a folder. The .xml needs to be removed from the middle and appended to the end as in the example shown . Example From: TestMessage.xml2010-10-19_20_21_08 TestMessage.xml2010-10-20_20_21_09 TestMessage.xml2010-10-21_20_21_08... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: sree_chari
4 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

renaming files in a folder

I splited a file into parts, then i wrote a script to convert the format of the file names to this: part1.dat part2.dat but I wonder why part.dat is also created knowing that the k variable starts from 1 rm -f part* $(split -b $1 file.1 part_) set k = 1 for i in $(ls part_*) do mv -f... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: saman_glorious
1 Replies

10. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Renaming all files in a folder

Guys, i need to replace a particular pattern in lots of files in a folder with another pattern . Is there any command line script I can use to do the functionality. Eg: aalex > ls green_1234_colour.max red_1234_pen.max yellow1234flower.max Need to replace the 1234 in the file name with 9876... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: appualex
4 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question