UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,
I have some ps files where I want to ectract/copy a certain number from and use that number to rename the ps file.
eg:
'file.ps' contains following text:
14 (09 01 932688 0)t
the text can be variable, the only fixed element is the '14 ('. The problem is that the fixed element can appear elsewhere, not followed by a number (eg.14 (Telefoonnummer)t)
The number can appear several times in the file, so I only would like to use the firts occurrence.

So basicaly it comes to that:
file.ps needs to change to 09 01 932688 0.ps
Can someone help me with that?

Tnx in advance,
John

filenames with spaces are annoying ;-)

this will move to names with underscores:

Code:

 mv file.ps $( sed -e 's/ /_/g' -e '/14/s/.*14_(\([_0-9]*\).*/\1.ps/g;q'  file.ps)

if you really want to keep the spaces, this is one way:

Code:

eval mv file.ps $(sed '/14/s/.*14 (\([ 0-9]*\).*/\"\1.ps\"/g;q'  file.ps)

Hi Tytalus,
thank you for the quick response but it doesn't seem so work. (I might be doing something wrong, since I'm just starting to try this kind of stuff)
The filename has been renamed, but it takes the first line in the file.
Therefore I attached the actual ps file.
What I forgot to mention is that the filename itself is also variable, so I was wondering whether your solution would work as well with the *.ps in stead of the file.ps?

best regards,
John

PS indeed the underscores are a better solution

oops - my bad..

try:

Code:

mv file.ps $(sed -n -e 's/ /_/g' -e '/14/s/.*14_(\([0-9][_0-9]*\).*/\1.ps/gp' file.ps)

Using this approach you'd prob be best to set up a loop around it e.g.

Code:

for f in *
do
mv $f $(se..../gp' $f)
done

Think that should be about right ...

HTH

It surely works for one specific file! tnx

Best Regards,
John

Hi Tytalus,
sorry to bother again.
when I ran the first line in this thread then I get the ps header. When I ran the second post then it worked once.
Today I tried again with the follwing line:
mv 0127050_out_0001_0008.ps $( sed -n -e 's/ /_/g' -e '/14/s/.*14_(\([0-9][_0-9]*\).*/\1.ps/gp' 0127050_out_0001_0008.ps)
and I got the following:
usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target
mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory
Do you notice something strange in the line I typed?
Thanks for the help, I realy appreciate it.

Hi again
I know why the output is not correct. The file I sent you only had one occurrence of the 14 (09 01 932688 0)t.
The one I want to process got multiple. Is there someone who knows how I get only the first occurrence?
When I just run: sed -n -e 's/ /_/g' -e '/14/s/.*14_(\([0-9][_0-9]*\).*/\1.ps/gp' *.ps then I get the following:
09_01_932699_0.ps
09_01_932699_0.ps
09_01_932699_0.ps
5_.ps
5_.ps
5_.ps
09_01_932699_0.ps
5_.ps
09_01_932699_0.ps
5_.ps
5_.ps
5_.ps
09_01_932699_0.ps
5_.ps

I would like to have only the first 09_01_932699_0.ps

Best Regards,
John