UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Originally Posted by Lillyt

Hi

I am a newbie to unix. I have a current script that reads a directory for excel files and renames the files. There is a problem now because some of the files have spaces. If I put quotes on the file, it will work but I dont know how to read all the files with quotes.

Variables
$1 = /data/
$2 = xls
$3 = AAA
$4 = /data/

filenames are :

report 1 and 1a.xls (this doesnt work)
report2_1.xls (this works, renames AAAreport2_1.xls)

Code:

for fname in $1/*.$2 ; do
    newname=`eval basename $fname`
    newfile=$3$newname
    echo "newfile is " $newfile
    if test -f $fname ;  then
        mv $fname $4/$newfile
    fi
done

If anyone can help, that would be great.

Thanks.
Lilly

Originally Posted by Lillyt

Thank it works.
Can you tell me how the filename is extracted from the directory path from your code "newname=${fname##*/}"

${parameter#pattern}
${parameter##pattern}

If the shell pattern matches the beginning of the value of parame-
ter, then the value of this expansion is the value of the parameter
with the matched portion deleted. Otherwise the value of this
parameter is substituted. In the first form the smallest matching
pattern is deleted and in the second form the largest matching pat-
tern is deleted. When parameter is @, *, or an array variable with
subscript @ or *, the substring operation is applied to each ele-
ment in turn.

${parameter%pattern}
${parameter%%pattern}

If the shell pattern matches the end of the value of parameter,
then the value of this expansion is the value of the parameter with
the matched part deleted. Otherwise substitute the value of parame-
ter. In the first form the smallest matching pattern is deleted,
and in the second form the largest matching pattern is deleted.
When parameter is @, *, or an array variable with subscript @ or *,
the substring operation is applied to each element in turn.