Renaming files


 
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# 1  
Old 04-06-2011
Lightbulb Renaming files

Hi all,

I'm working in a specific directory and I have file names which I'd like to rename but in a way in which I can specify the new filenames as @ARGV or user input at prompt.

Can someone shed some light on this?

Cheers Smilie
# 2  
Old 04-06-2011
What is @ARGV? Don't know of any shell that has this.

There are lots of ways you could rename files giving parameters to a prompt. I doubt any of the things I'm thinking of are what you want, though. Could you show what you'd like to input into the prompt and what it should do in response?
# 3  
Old 04-06-2011
I'm new to Unix so I might have not been clear ... by @ARGV wrongly, as you corrected, I meant <STDIN> from the user.
So filenames example:
Code:
SK1.chr01
SK1.chr02
SK1.chr03
...

then at user prompt on running code at user prompt
Code:
Enter new filename pattern:

eg if I put S5_*
Expected output of renamed files:
Code:
S5_SK1.chr01
S5_SK1.chr02
S5_SK1.chr03

Hope I could make its clearer.
# 4  
Old 04-06-2011
You will have to write a script to do this. Is this what you're asking:

Code:
ms:/u/purdym>cd /tmp
ms:/tmp>touch SK1.chr01
ms:/tmp>touch SK1.chr02
ms:/tmp>touch SK1.chr03
ms:/tmp>global_rename "SK" "S5_"
====================================================================================================================================
/home/unxsa/bin/global_rename started on Wed Apr 06 2011 at 11:51:52.
====================================================================================================================================
mv "SK1.chr01" "S5_1.chr01"
mv "SK1.chr02" "S5_1.chr02"
mv "SK1.chr03" "S5_1.chr03"
====================================================================================================================================
/home/unxsa/bin/global_rename ended on Wed Apr  6 11:51:52 CDT 2011.
====================================================================================================================================

# 5  
Old 04-06-2011
wow, that's very ambitious. if you think this will be a utility you will need over and over, and if you want to use regular expressions, you will have to define all the different patterns you want to support. and then this would explode into a whole big bulky utility that just renames the file.

usually when i am trying to rename files on the go, i list the names to a file, make the changes i want and just run the mv commands. something like so:

1.
Code:
ls | sed 's/.*/mv & SS_&/' > files

2. edit the file 'files' and make any necessary changes

3. source files , ie. $ . files (dot space files)
This User Gave Thanks to rn_ For This Post:
# 6  
Old 04-06-2011
Try this: you can use any pattern that sed accepts...

Code:
# command line args  
OLD=$1
NEW=$2

# Variables
COMMAND_FILE=$WORK_DIR/${0##*/}.command.$$.tmp
  
# Main Line Here
  find . -type f -exec ls -1 {} \; | grep "$OLD" | while read LINE
   do
      LINE=$(basename "$LINE")
      echo "mv \"$LINE\" \"\c" >>$COMMAND_FILE
      TEMP=$(echo $LINE | sed "s/$OLD/$NEW/g")
      echo "$TEMP\"" >>$COMMAND_FILE

   done

   if [[ -e $COMMAND_FILE ]]
   then
      chmod o+x $COMMAND_FILE
      cat $COMMAND_FILE

   fi

This User Gave Thanks to purdym For This Post:
# 7  
Old 04-06-2011
Could also use
Code:
for i in SK*; do mv $i S5_$i; done

This User Gave Thanks to Nevyn For This Post:
 
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