Renaming Files (Multiple files)

shekhar_v4 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-02-2009

Hi,

I have a directory with files names like ABC20090101AXY.txt, ABC20090102BZ.txt,ABC20090101COF.txt etc. The digits in the filenames represent the date. I want to rename the files to AXY.txt, BZ.txt and COF.txt

I tried with this code.

myfile= date '+ABC%Y%m%d'
for i in *.txt
do
mv $i `echo $i | sed 's/$myfile//'`
done

But its giving message

mv: ABC20090101AXY.txt and ABC20090101AXY.txt are identical

Can u help me finding the problem.

Regards,
Shekhar

in2nix4life · #2 (**permalink**) 01-02-2009

If you have Perl installed, this may help you:

for x in *.txt;do mv $x `echo $x | perl -pe 's/^\w+\d+(.*)/$1/'`;done

Hope this helps.

Christoph Spohr · #3 (**permalink**) 01-02-2009

Hi,

shell variables inside '' are not expanded. So here

Code:

mv $i `echo $i | sed 's/$myfile//'`

$myfile will not be substituted by "date '+ABC%Y%m%d'".

Either use "..." or no sed at all. Shell built-ins are enough. Try:

Code:

mv $i ${i/200[7-9][0-1][0-9][0-3][0-9]/}

HTH Chris

reddysiva · #4 (**permalink**) 01-03-2009

Try this
myfile=$(date '+ABC%Y%m%d')
for i in *.txt
do
mv $i `echo $i | sed "s/$myfile//"`
done

i thik u didnt use back tics or $() to set variable myfile.
to expend $myfile use " instead of '

i tried this
a=$(date '+ABC%Y%m%d')

echo ABC20090103AXY.txt | sed 's/$a//g'
ABC20090103AXY.txt

echo ABC20090103AXY.txt | sed "s/$a//g"
AXY.txt

echo '$aABC20090103AXY.txt' | sed "s/$a//g"
$aAXY.txt

echo '$aABC20090103AXY.txt' | sed 's/$a//g'
ABC20090103AXY.txt

ghostdog74 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-05-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by shekhar_v4

Hi,

I have a directory with files names like ABC20090101AXY.txt, ABC20090102BZ.txt,ABC20090101COF.txt etc. The digits in the filenames represent the date. I want to rename the files to AXY.txt, BZ.txt and COF.txt

I tried with this code.

myfile= date '+ABC%Y%m%d'
for i in *.txt
do
mv $i `echo $i | sed 's/$myfile//'`
done

But its giving message

mv: ABC20090101AXY.txt and ABC20090101AXY.txt are identical

Can u help me finding the problem.

Regards,
Shekhar

if you have Python and can use it, here's a ready script you can use. Usage examples

Code:

# ls -1
ABC20090101AXY.txt
ABC20090101COF.txt
ABC20090102BZ.txt

# filerenamer.py -p "ABC\d+" -e "" -l "ABC*.txt"
==>>>>  [ /home/ABC20090101COF.txt ]==>[ /home/COF.txt ]
==>>>>  [ /home/ABC20090101AXY.txt ]==>[ /home/AXY.txt ]
==>>>>  [ /home/ABC20090102BZ.txt ]==>[ /home/BZ.txt ]

remove "-l" to do actual rename.

freizl · #6 (**permalink**) 01-05-2009

Assuming the "ABC20090102" string is fixed length.
And I'm using sh shell.

Code:

ls -1 *.txt | awk '{print "mv", $1, substr($1,12) }' | sh

ghostdog74 · #7 (**permalink**) 01-05-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by freizl

Assuming the "ABC20090102" string is fixed length.
And I'm using sh shell.

Code:

ls -1 *.txt | awk '{print "mv", $1, substr($1,12) }' | sh

it is also not necessary to use ls and sh , by making use of FILENAME variable

Code:

awk '{ system("mv " FILENAME" " substr(FILENAME,1,12) )}' ABC*.txt

not tested.

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