removing the extension from all filenames in a folder

johnmcclintock · #1 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

Hi there,

I'm pretty new to UNIX and have tried trawling through this forum to find an answer to what I want to try to do, which I'm sure is very simple but I don't know how to do it.

What I have a a folder that contains multiple files that I have copied from Windows and I want to remove the .xls, for example, extension of the files without changing the rest of the filename. How do I do this please?

Apologies if this does appear elsewhere in this forum and thanks in advance for any help.

Franklin52 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

This should gives you the commands to do the job:

Code:

ls|sed 's/\(.*\).xls/mv & \1/'

If you get the desired move commands you can pipe the output to sh to move the files:

Code:

ls|sed 's/\(.*\).xls/mv & \1/'| sh

Regards

johnmcclintock · #3 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

Thanks for the response. Worked beautifully.

Any chance you have the time to explain exactly what the command you provided did/meant? Obviously I know what the outcome was but if you have time to explain all the parameters that'd be great. Don't worry if you don't, I'm sure, with time, I'll be able to figure it out for myself.

Once again, thanks for the swift response

joeyg · #4 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

Here is another approach I scripted - part of a bigger program.
It actually copies files called dm12345678_DAT to dm123456.dat, so for you:
(a) exclude the .dat from the copy
(b) use a move instead of copy to rename [I wanted to keep the original file just in case.]
(c) could eliminate the tailprg which was merely to use the first six characters of a very long numeric string

But, my example shows a couple other things you can accomplish while manipulating filenames.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/bash
tailprg="/usr/local/bin/tail" #force version of tail command

echo "Shortening the filenames"
for rf in *_DAT; do
   echo "Creating .dat for $rf"
   tf=dm`basename $rf _DAT | $tailprg -c6`.dat
   cp $rf $tf
done

Franklin52 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

s -> substitute command

\(.*\).xls -> This saves the pattern before the dot (filename without extension) which is recalled with \1.

The & gives the original line (filename with extension) so "mv & \1" prints:

mv "the filename with extension" "filename without the extension"

A useful link with some tutorials:

Unix Tutorials/Programming Tutorials/Shell Scripting Tutorials

Hope this helps.

Regards

johnmcclintock · #6 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008

Brilliant!

Thanks so much for all the help and guidance. One day I'll get the hang of this UNIX thing!

More UNIX and Linux Forum Topics You Might Find Helpful
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
removing particular lines ending with a .cnt extension in a text file	ramky79	SUN Solaris	2	03-03-2008 05:17 AM
Reading filenames with extension .xml	bhalotias	Shell Programming and Scripting	3	01-21-2008 12:02 PM
Removing certain text from multiple filenames	Djaunl	UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers	6	01-15-2008 05:52 PM
Removing the extension and FTP the files	pradkumar	Shell Programming and Scripting	1	02-14-2007 02:01 PM
Adding an extension to a group of filenames	pepintheshort	UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers	9	04-09-2004 09:11 PM

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:


	Powered by