UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm currently only able to perform some very basic functions, so hope this makes sense...

I have a set of about 27 files that need to be renamed from something like this:

Code:

000012ABCDEFGHIJ.XXX.YYY.ZZZ
000078KLMNO.XXX.YYY.ZZZ
000099PQ.XXX.YYY.ZZZ

to something like this:

Code:

newa012.abc
newa078.abc
newa099.abc

The file names currently all start with '0000', then a 2-digit value, then a name that can be anywhere from 2 to 10 characthers, then the same extension. They need to be changed to a new prefix + 0 + the existing 2 digit value, dropping the next 2 to 10 characters, and changing the extension on each file to the new one. All are case sensitive as indicated.

I was able to use one-liners to get to a file name like 'newa012PQ.abc', and am having the most trouble trying to understand how to drop the 'PQ' etc.

As I said I'm not familiar with much of this and see a lot of references to sed and awk etc. but short of copying code I'm not sure the meaning of, or messing with scripting that I've never touched before I figured I'd try here first.

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks

bash

Code:

$ for file in 0000*; do new=${file#0000}; new=newa0${new:0:2}.abc; echo mv "$file" "$new"; done
mv 000012ABCDEFGHIJ.XXX.YYY.ZZZ newa012.abc
mv 000078KLMNO.XXX.YYY.ZZZ newa078.abc
mv 000099PQ.XXX.YYY.ZZZ newa099.abc

POSIX:

Code:

$ f=000012ABCDEFGHIJ.XXX.YYY.ZZZ
$ f=${f%${f#??????}}
$ echo "newa${f#???}.abc"
newa012.abc

I'm getting this error:

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

You can try this in working directory :

Code:

ls -1 | sed 's/\(^0\{1,4\}\)\([0-9][0-9]\)\(.*\)/mv & newa0\2.abc/ ' # | sh

After checkin the output pipe it to sh (remove the #)

I'd suggest piping it into 'cat' instead of 'sh' first, to see if what it prints makes any sense.

@neutronscott - I'm assuming that I would use this in a script??? If this is something we'd have to run infreuqently I'm guessing that makes more sense just not sure how to do that.
Anyhoo... @Peasant - running the command in the working directory using your code works!!! I did take your advice @Corona688 - and piped to 'cat' instead of 'sh' first then via 'sh' and I see what it does, but can someone explain more what it's doing one vs the other?
Thanks to all again. This has been most helpful and very much appreciated!!!