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mass renaming files with complex filenames

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# 1  
Old 02-11-2011
mass renaming files with complex filenames
Hi,

I've got files with names like this :
[Various-PC3]_Some_Name_178_HD_[e2813be1].mp4
[TTB]_Some_Name_-_496_Vost_SD_(720x400_XviD_MP3).avi
Goffytofansub_Some name 483_HD.avi

And iam trying to rename it with a regular pattern. My gola is this :
Ep 178.mp4
Ep 496.avi
Ep 483.avi

I've tried using sed with substitution expressions :
Code:
 for f in `ls`
do
        OLD=$f
        NEW=$(echo $f | sed 's/.*\([0-9]\{3\}\).*\.\(.*\)/Ep \1.\2/1')
        echo -n "$OLD => $NEW (o/n) "
        read YES_NO
        [[ $YES_NO == "y" ]] && mv $OLD $NEW
done

the result is

Code:
Ep 813.mp4
Ep 400.avi
Ep 483.avi

One file correctly renamed :-/

This one :
Code:
 echo $f | sed 's/[^0-9]*\([0-9]\{3\}\).*\.\(.*\)/Ep \1.\2/1'

Went wrong with the first one
Code:
[Various-PC3Ep 178.mp4
Ep 496.avi
Ep 483.avi

Then I tried perl. But considering that I have very few knowledges in it, I spent many time on my script
Code:
open(LS, "ls -1 |");
foreach (<LS>)
{
        $old = $_;
        $new = s/(?![0-9]{3})*([0-9]{3}).*\.(.*)/Ep $1.$2/;
        print "$old => $new (o/n) ";
        chomp($yes_no = <STDIN>);
        next unless ( $yes_no == "y");
        system("mv $old $new");
} #foreach

for an unexpected result :
Code:
Ep 418.mp4
 => 1 (o/n) <- waiting here for input

I've also tried some alternatives of the beginning :
Code:
foreach(`ls`)

result
Code:
Ep 418.mp4
  => 1 (o/n) <- waiting here for input

This one :
Code:
foreach (system("ls -1"))

gave me
Code:
 Various-PC3]_Some_Name_178_HD_[e2813be1].mp4
[TTB]_Some_Name_-_496_Vost_SD_(720x400_XviD_MP3).avi
Goffytofansub_Some name 483_HD.avi
0 =>  (o/n) <- waiting here for input

Any idea on how to reach my goal ?

Thx in advance !
Last edited by VLaw; 02-11-2011 at 04:25 PM.. Reason: Details of 1st bash script
# 2  
Old 02-11-2011
You want more of an assembly line, not command calls for one file:
Code:
 
export zct=$start_no
find $top-dir -type f -name '*[a-zA-Z].[am][vp][i3]' | sed '
  /avi$/!{
    /mp3$/!d
   }
 /avi$/{
    /MP3/!d
   }
  s/.*/mv "&" $(( zct += 1 )).mp3/
 ' >/tmp/mvall.sh

Review before executing! You might take all the files for one dir and do them at once in the background (parallel), just wrap lines for each dir in parens with amp: (...)& More than one process renaming in the same dir makes for file contention.
# 3  
Old 02-11-2011
EDIT: DGPickett beat me to it.

I don't know the answer to your question/problem, but in my experience, using 'ls' with a 'for' statement is just bad practice and even more so with spaces in your filenames. I would direct you to use the 'find' command.
# 4  
Old 02-11-2011
Try replacing your sed by:
Code:
sed -e 's/\([0-9]\{3\}\).*\(\..*\)/\1\2/' -e 's/.*\([0-9]\{3\}\)/Ep \1/'

This User Gave Thanks to Shell_Life For This Post:
VLaw
# 5  
Old 02-11-2011
Oh, extracted numbers! Sure. I never use -e on sed, just pile the lines on the command line, but with pretty spacing, sed on sed lines and shell on shell lines. You, too, deserve readable code and a lower error rate!

Still a lot of mv fork() and exec(), so PERL might have an advantage, assuming it knows how to rewrite directories internally. In C or PERL, you link() the file to the new name and unlink() it from the old name.

BTW, directories never shrink, so making new directories is not a bad idea. Big directories can waste a lot of time.
# 6  
Old 02-11-2011
I strongly advise that you hide these filenames from Shell and avoid trying to put them into Shell environment variables. Try to work with external commands only.

Use unix "find" to generate a list of filenames into a file.

Then create a "sed" file containing your "sed" commands. Because Shell will not see them we only need to escape characters where "sed" requires it (which it will with some of these filenames!).

Run with the outline syntax:
Code:
sed -f sed_scriptfile filename

Throughout this exercise we must avoid Shell seeing the filenames.
# 7  
Old 02-12-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by methyl
Throughout this exercise we must avoid Shell seeing the filenames.

Quite the contrary.

You want the shell to see the filenames, not the individual words making up those names.

The correct way is:
Code:
for file in *
do
  : whatever
done

This User Gave Thanks to cfajohnson For This Post:
VLaw
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