Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community

Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: Need help for a Shell script to rename multiple files
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Need help for a Shell script to rename multiple files Post 302400620 by drewk on Wednesday 3rd of March 2010 05:34:47 PM
Old 03-03-2010
I think both forms of the loops are choking because the whitespace in the file names. The shell uses the value of IFS to break apart fields, and this is usually a white space. Using a shell 'for' loop in the form of

Code:
for file in $( ls Illustrator* ) #modern form of: for file in `ls Illustrator*`

will break all the files names apart on white spaces (or more accurately on the values in $IFS). You will get the error of "[utility]: No such file or directory [file fragment]"

the other 'for' loop form of:

Code:
for file in '$( ls Illustrator* )' #or for file in "$( ls Illustrator* )"

also does not work because the shell loop returns a single monolithic paragraph with ALL the files names in it.

You can a) rename all the files with no white space, or b) use a form of loop that can use asciz strings for the loop, c) use Perl.

The general form of loop 'b' that can use ASCIZ strings in the loop is like this:

Code:
find [directory] -type f [-maxdepth X] -print0 | while read -d $'\0' file
do
   #rename the files
done

Note the "-print0" and the "while read -d $'\0'". The first reads the file names and puts them in a string that is terminated by a ASCII NUL; the second sets a while loop that reads the list with NUL terminators...

Good luck!
Last edited by drewk; 03-03-2010 at 06:52 PM..
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. 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

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Shell script to rename files with .1,.2,.3 ....ext respectively

Hey Guys.... Just need some help as I am not proficient in Unix shell script... Doubt: --------------- Suppose there will be some of the following files inside a directory called OUT ... Path: - /appdb1/product/batch/rms/OUT files inside OUT directory:- POSU_75002_20090127_20090129035442... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: satyajit007
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Shell Script to rename files

Hi, i need a bit of help writting a tcsh script which renames all ascii text files in the current directory by adding a number to their names before the extension so for example, a directory containing the files Hello.txt Hello.t Hello should have the following changes, Hello.txt... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: yakuzaa
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Shell script to rename a group of files

Hello, I am having 1800 files in a directory with a specified format, like amms_850o_prod.000003uNy amms_850o_prod.000003u8x amms_850o_prod.000003taP amms_850o_prod.000003tKy amms_850o_prod.000003si4 amms_850o_prod.000003sTP amms_850o_prod.000003sBg amms_850o_prod.000003rvx... (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: atlantis
12 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Rename the multiple files

Hi I need to reanme the multiple file using unix script I have multiple file like: sample_YYYYMMDD.xls test new_YYYYMMDD.xls simple_YYYYMMDD.xls I need to rename this file sample.xls testnew.xls SIMPLE.xls thanks (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: murari83.ds
8 Replies

6. 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

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Rename multiple files

Hi, In my directory I have many files, for e.g. 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 123 124 125 126 127 What command(awk or ls or... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: juzz4fun
3 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Rename multiple files in shell bash, changing elements order.

Hi, I want to rename several files like this: example: A0805120817.BHN A0805120818.BHN ..... to: 20120817.0805.N 20120818.0805.N ...... How can i do this via terminal or in shell bash script ? thanks, (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: pintolcv
6 Replies

9. 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

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Oop to copy and rename files through SQL Statement in shell Script

#!/bin/sh sqlplus -s "/ as sysdba" << EOF SET HEADING OFF SET FEEDBACK OFF Select pt.user_concurrent_program_name , OUTFILE_NAME FROm apps.fnd_concurrent_programs_tl pt, apps.fnd_concurrent_requests f where pt.concurrent_program_id = f.concurrent_program_id and pt.application_id =... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: usman_oracle
1 Replies

LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

shtool-move

SHTOOL-MOVE.TMP(1)					      GNU Portable Shell Tool						SHTOOL-MOVE.TMP(1)

NAME

       shtool-move - GNU shtool enhanced mv(1) replacement

SYNOPSIS

       shtool move [-v|--verbose] [-t|--trace] [-e|--expand] [-p|--preserve] src-file dst-file

DESCRIPTION

       This is a mv(1) style command enhanced with the ability to rename multiple files in a single operation and the ability to detect and not
       touch existing equal destinations files, thus preserving timestamps.

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are available.

       -v, --verbose
	   Display some processing information.

       -t, --trace
	   Enable the output of the essential shell commands which are executed.

       -e, --expand
	   Expand asterisk in src to be used as ""%"n" (where n is 1,2,...) in dst-file. This is useful for renaming multiple files at once.

       -p, --preserve
	   Detect src-file and dst-file having equal content and not touch existing destination files, thus perserving timestamps. This is useful
	   for applications that monitor timestamps, i.e. suppress make(1L) repeating actions for unchanged files.

EXAMPLE

	#   shell script
	shtool move -v -e '*.txt' %1.asc

	#   Makefile
	scanner.c: scanner.l
	    lex scanner.l
	    shtool move -t -p lex.yy.c scanner.c

HISTORY

       The GNU shtool move command was originally written by Ralf S.  Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com> in 1999 for GNU shtool.

SEE ALSO

       shtool(1), mv(1), make(1).

18-Jul-2008							   shtool 2.0.8 						SHTOOL-MOVE.TMP(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:15 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy