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Full Discussion: find & remove characters in filenames
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers find & remove characters in filenames Post 302582851 by ryran on Sunday 18th of December 2011 10:04:24 PM
Old 12-18-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by radoulov
Code:
find . -type f -name '*[:?"]*' |
  while IFS= read -r; do
    mv -- "$REPLY" "${REPLY//[:?\"]}"
  done

Very nice radoulov! I'm a bash dude and was familiar with ${VAR/MATCH/REPLACE/} syntax but didn't know about all the extra details, so was a bit confused at first. For anyone else that's looking for an explanation, here's the relevant bit from bash's man page:
Code:
${parameter/pattern/string}
   Pattern substitution.  The pattern is expanded to produce  a  pattern  just  as  in  
   pathname expansion.  Parameter is expanded and the longest match of pattern against
   its value is replaced with string.  If pattern begins with /, all matches  of  pat‐
   tern are replaced with string.  Normally only the first match is replaced.  If pat‐
   tern begins with #, it must match at the beginning of the expanded value of parame‐
   ter.   If  pattern begins with %, it must match at the end of the expanded value of
   parameter.  If string is null, matches of pattern are deleted and the  /  following
   pattern  may  be  omitted.   If  parameter is @ or *, the substitution operation is
   applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion  is  the  resultant
   list.   If parameter is an array variable subscripted with @ or *, the substitution
   operation is applied to each member of the array in turn, and the expansion is  the 
   resultant list.

PS: Can you explain what exactly "IFS=" is doing in there?
 

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LEARN ABOUT X11R4

fc-pattern

FC-PATTERN(1)                                                                                                                        FC-PATTERN(1)

NAME

       fc-pattern - parse and show pattern

SYNOPSIS

       fc-pattern [ -cdVh ] [ --config ] [ --default ] [ -f format | --format format ] [ --version ] [ --help ]
           [ pattern  [ element ... ]  ]

DESCRIPTION

       fc-pattern  parses  pattern (empty pattern by default) and shows the parsed result.  If --config is given, config substitution is performed
       on the pattern before being displayed.  If --default is given, default substitution is performed on the pattern before being displayed.

       If any elements are specified, only those are printed.

OPTIONS

       This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-').  A summary of options is included
       below.

       -c --config
              Perform config substitution on pattern.

       -d --default
              Perform default substitution on pattern.

       -f --format format
              Format output according to the format specifier format.

       -V --version
              Show version of the program and exit.

       -h --help
              Show summary of options.

       pattern
              Parses and displays pattern (uses empty pattern by default).

       element
              If set, the element property is displayed for parsed pattern.

SEE ALSO

       FcNameParse(3)  FcConfigSubstitute(3)  FcDefaultSubstitute(3)  FcPatternPrint(3)  FcPatternFormat(3)  fc-cat(1)  fc-cache(1) fc-list(1) fc-
       match(1) fc-query(1) fc-scan(1)

       The fontconfig user's guide, in HTML format: /usr/share/doc/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was updated by Behdad Esfahbod <behdad@behdad.org>.

                                                                   16 April 2012                                                     FC-PATTERN(1)
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