Renaming files

Tygoon · #1 (**permalink**) 12-20-2007

Hello!
I am not familiar with UNIX and I have this problem:

I need to move files from a UNIX machine to a PC. UNIX file names contain ":" as special character which is not recognized in a PC.
How can I change ":" for "_" in the name of a bunch of files in UNIX?

Thanks for your help.

Smiling Dragon · #2 (**permalink**) 12-20-2007

Code:

for file in *
do
  mv $file `echo $file | sed 's/\:/_/g'`
done

Tygoon · #3 (**permalink**) 12-20-2007

Thank you for your help!

Tygoon · #4 (**permalink**) 12-21-2007

Hi!
I tried the procedure described and I could change the file names inside the main folder. I would like this process to include any subfolders and files included in the main folder (and not repeating it in each folder!).
Thanks!

mehmet_demirez · #5 (**permalink**) 12-25-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tygoon

Hi!
I tried the procedure described and I could change the file names inside the main folder. I would like this process to include any subfolders and files included in the main folder (and not repeating it in each folder!).
Thanks!

extending previous solution for subfolders:

for file in `find .`
do
mv $file `echo $file | sed 's/:/_/g'`
done

Smiling Dragon · #6 (**permalink**) 01-06-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by mehmet_demirez

extending previous solution for subfolders:

for file in `find .`
do
mv $file `echo $file | sed 's/:/_/g'`
done

I'd suggest adding a '-type f' to the find command to to avoid it matching directories too?

ghostdog74 · #7 (**permalink**) 01-06-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

I'd suggest adding a '-type f' to the find command to to avoid it matching directories too?

i would suggest using while loop instead. ( although it should be ok with a for loop if files with spaces are properly parsed)

Code:

# find . -type f | while read line;  do .... ; done

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