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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Bash script to rename files in a directory Post 302601839 by djsnifer on Friday 24th of February 2012 01:44:49 PM
Old 02-24-2012
Power Bash script to rename files in a directory

Dear friends,

I have created a script to rename all files in a directory by appending the file name with username (who created the file), the date it was created. For example, "apple.doc" should be renamed to "johnFeb23apple.doc" where "john" is the owner and "Feb23" is file created date. It works fine with file names without spaces. but there are few issues I don't know how to fix.

First, Here's my script:

Code:
#!/bin/bash
for i in *
do
newname=$(ls -l ${i} | awk '{ print $3 $6 $7 $9 }')

    mv $i $newname
done

1. When it met a file with spaces, e.g. like "fff eee.xls" it gives the following error and won't rename that file:

Code:
ls: cannot access fff: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access eee.xls: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `fff': No such file or directory


2. I need to run this script in the parent directory (it's sub directory contains all files to be renamed). How do I make that change in my script? (adding path of sub directory where all files stored)

script is in "/tommy/" directory and files in "/tommy/data/" directory

Please help me. Thanks in advance... Smilie

Last edited by DukeNuke2; 02-24-2012 at 03:00 PM..
 

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MRENAME(1)						      General Commands Manual							MRENAME(1)

NAME
mrename - program to rename files SYNOPSIS
mrename 'pattern' prefix [option] DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the mrename command. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. mrename is a tool for easy and automatic renaming of many files. The 'pattern' is the pattern to search files to rename (quoted to avoid that bash resolve it), and prefix is the prefix that will be added to the name of each file. The two alternative options for copying or moving files in the new name are explained below. All parameters are needed, and you have to stay and launch the script in the same direc- tory of the files to be renamed. The program should be able to write in this directory. OPTIONS
There are only the following three options. -c The option -c will copy each file with the new filename. -m The option -m will move each file in the new filename. -h Display help. EXAMPLE
If you have a directory with two jpeg images prof.jpg and forp.jpg and you want to add them a prefix like item0, item1 etc.. (that is item0prof.jpg, item1forp.jpg etc..) do this: cd /path/to/the/images mrename '*.jpg' item -c to copy each matching file into another with the new name mrename '*.jpg' item -m to rename each file without keeping a copy with the previous name Word-Wide-Web: http://alfalinux.sourceforge.net/mrename.php3 AUTHOR
: Giancarlo -rofus- Erra e-mail: rofus@mindless.com This manual page was written by Dr. Guenter Bechly <gbechly@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). It is distributed under the GPL just like mrename itself. October 22, 2000 MRENAME(1)
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