Bash script to rename files in a directory Post: 302601857

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Bash script to rename files in a directory Post 302601857 by Corona688 on Friday 24th of February 2012 03:39:25 PM

02-24-2012

Registered User

You didn't quote the ${i} variable, so it split. Quote it "${i}"

Also, awk can't tell the difference between the spaces splitting the columns, and the spaces splitting the filename, causing problems.

Also, there's also no point running awk 9,000 times to process 9,000 lines. That's like making 9,000 phonecalls to say 9,000 words. awk can do it all in one go if it can do it at all.

But, I think shell read is better suited, since you can tell it exactly how many columns you want, and it won't split beyond that. Try and put 12 values into 9 columns, the last few columns will all get piled into the last variable unmodified. I really wish you could do that in awk, sometimes.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

cd /path/where/I/want/it/to/go

# The filename will get all put into the last variable, I
ls -l | while read A B C D E F G H I
do
        # Remove the 'echo' once you've tested it and found it does what you want.
        echo mv "$I" "$C$F$G$I"
done

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LEARN ABOUT CENTOS

rename

RENAME(1)							   User Commands							 RENAME(1)

NAME

       rename - rename files

SYNOPSIS

       rename [options] expression replacement file...

DESCRIPTION

       rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of expression in their name by replacement.

OPTIONS

       -v, --verbose
	      Give visual feedback which files where renamed, if any.

       -V, --version
	      Display version information and exit.

       -s, --symlink
	      Peform rename on symlink target

       -h, --help
	      Display help text and exit.

EXAMPLES

       Given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands

	      rename foo foo0 foo?
	      rename foo foo0 foo??

       will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278.  And

	      rename .htm .html *.htm

       will fix the extension of your html files.

WARNING

       The  renaming  has  no safeguards.  If the user has permission to rewrite file names, the command will perform the action without any ques-
       tions.  For example, the result can be quite drastic when the command is run as root in the /lib directory.  Always make  a  backup  before
       running the command, unless you truly know what you are doing.

SEE ALSO

       mmv(1), mv(1)

AVAILABILITY

       The rename command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux							     June 2011								 RENAME(1)