[Arty Zifferelli]

I know this can be done, but it's a little too "guru level" for me...

I have a directory with sub-directories...

Most (but not all) of the files have a standard prefix: prefix-something.php (or js or css)

I would like the change the prefix on all of them (recursively from the root of the tree): sometingelse.something.php

Suggestions?

[rpural]

Decide how you'd do it for one file, and then use that as the -exec target for a find command, or use the find command to feed filenames to a loop.

To change one file, you might try:

file="filename" ; tail=${file#prefix-} ; mv $file newprefix-$tail

So then, the loop would become:

for i in $( find /directory -type f ) ; do tail=${i#prefix-} ; mv $i newprefix-$tail ; done

This doesn't account for the path prior to the actual filename, but it could be handled by stripping it off into another variable and tacking it back in on the mv command. That would look like:

for i in $( find /directory -type f ) ; do dir=${i%/*} ; file=${i##*/} ; tail=${file#prefix-} ; mv ${dir}/$i ${dir}/newprefix-$tail ; done

(This is all off-the-cuff, and not tested in any known environment. Your mileage may vary.)

[rpural]

It's now tested. Given a series of directories (testdir, containing testdir1, testdir2, ...), each directory containing files in the form of prefix-file1.test, prefix-file2.test, ...:

R5057499:~ rpn01$ for i in $( find testdir -type f ) ; do dir=${i%/*} ; file=${i##*/} ; tail=${file#prefix-} ; echo mv ${dir}/$i ${dir}/newprefix-$tail ; done
mv testdir/testdir/prefix-file1.test testdir/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/testdir/prefix-file2.test testdir/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/testdir/prefix-file3.test testdir/newprefix-file3.test
mv testdir/testdir/prefix-file4.test testdir/newprefix-file4.test
mv testdir/testdir/prefix-file5.test testdir/newprefix-file5.test
mv testdir/testdir1/testdir/testdir1/prefix-file1.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/testdir1/testdir/testdir1/prefix-file2.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/testdir1/testdir/testdir1/prefix-file3.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file3.test
mv testdir/testdir1/testdir/testdir1/prefix-file4.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file4.test
mv testdir/testdir1/testdir/testdir1/prefix-file5.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file5.test
mv testdir/testdir2/testdir/testdir2/prefix-file1.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/testdir2/testdir/testdir2/prefix-file2.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/testdir2/testdir/testdir2/prefix-file3.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file3.test

Change the prefixes, point to the right base directory, and remove the echo, and your job is done. Thanks for the exercise.

[rpural]

And a slight correction. I had the directory repeating in the source name. Make it:

R5057499:~ rpn01$ for i in $( find testdir -type f ) ; do dir=${i%/*} ; file=${i##*/} ; tail=${file#prefix-} ; echo mv $i ${dir}/newprefix-$tail ; done
mv testdir/prefix-file1.test testdir/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/prefix-file2.test testdir/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/prefix-file3.test testdir/newprefix-file3.test
mv testdir/prefix-file4.test testdir/newprefix-file4.test
mv testdir/prefix-file5.test testdir/newprefix-file5.test
mv testdir/testdir1/prefix-file1.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/testdir1/prefix-file2.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/testdir1/prefix-file3.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file3.test
mv testdir/testdir1/prefix-file4.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file4.test
mv testdir/testdir1/prefix-file5.test testdir/testdir1/newprefix-file5.test
mv testdir/testdir2/prefix-file1.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file1.test
mv testdir/testdir2/prefix-file2.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file2.test
mv testdir/testdir2/prefix-file3.test testdir/testdir2/newprefix-file3.test

[rpural]

And I missed the "not all" files part. Let's make the final command:

for i in $( find testdir -type f -iname "prefix-*" ) ; do dir=${i%/*} ; file=${i##*/} ; tail=${file#prefix-} ; echo mv $i ${dir}/newprefix-$tail ; done

Sorry to drag you through my entire "train of thought" here, but at least you can follow along with the logic I used to solve the problem.