Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,

I've got a large to task to do, which I've broken into three section. I'm just stuck on one of the sections.

I have to change the end of a filename from .txt to .doc in a directory. So if I have a directory called "folder1" and two files contained in it called "file1.txt" and "file2.txt", and I specify -r, it changes the end of the filename to "file1.doc" and "file2.doc".

I already know how to change a filename (should I post my code?), but I don't know how to do it in a directory. How do I go about this?

p.s. - I did a search and couldn't find anything sufficient.

Strange, a search for "change file extension" turns up lots of possible solutions. Like this one. And it even works if you're using an absolute path with the file.

I already know how to change the file extension, I just don't know how to do it in a directory.

Plus I have to signify it by entering -r.

Should that be signified by entering it like this, "sh ./name-of-script.sh > -r"?

EDIT: Should I post the code I've got so far?

Code:

for i in folder1/*.txt;do echo mv "${i}" "${i%*.txt}.doc";done

If that's what you want remove the echo

I don't exactly know what you are looking for. You can "cd" into folder1 and rename the files. If you're looking to rename files in a directory without changing to that directory, here's a for loop:

Code:

for i in `find ./folder1 -type f -name '*.txt'`; 
do 
j=`echo $i | sed -e 's/\.txt$/\.doc/'`;
mv $i $j; 
done

If you're asking about renaming a directory, use the "mv" command.

So it's homework, right?

Thanks for the help. I've already tried that and it works, but I need to run that command by signalling -r. Here is the if statement I've already created in my current program:

Code:

rec=2

if [ $1 = "-r" ]
then
    rec=1
fi

if [ $1 = "-n" ]
then
    rec=0
fi

if [ $rec = "2" ]
then
    rec=0
else
    shift
fi

I signal it by pressing "sh ./name-of-script.sh > -r". Is that the right way to do it? Because it's not actually changing anything.

---------- Post updated at 01:05 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:03 PM ----------

Yeah, it's part of my coursework. I'm having trouble with it, I just need to get this part done to finish it.

Is coursework help allowed in this forum?