Renaming file names

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October 4th, 2006, 04:15 AM

dyname_kebab

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Renaming file names

My problem is this.

I have a directory with around 1200 files. The file names go something like...

"Dev_Shed 101 - First topic.txt"
"Dev_Shed 102 - Second topic.txt"
"Dev_Shed 103 - Third topic.txt"

etc (without the quotes of course)

What I want is a script that will rename the files by stripping out the initial "Dev_Shed".

I have searched the site but couldn't find anything that will actually work.

Help please.

PS
I am using Cygwin.

October 4th, 2006, 05:20 AM

Ehlanna

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Try something like:

Code:

for f in $(ls -1)
do
  newfn=$(echo $f | cut -d" " -c2-)
  mv $f $newfn
done

But add some error checking!

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Last edited by Ehlanna : October 4th, 2006 at 05:23 AM.

October 4th, 2006, 05:59 AM

dyname_kebab

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Thanks. I tried something similar but I couldn't get it to work.

Here is what I had, very much like yours.

Quote:

for f in $(ls Dev*)
do
newfn=$(echo $f | cut -d" " -c2-)
mv $f $newfn
done

And this is what I got. Remember I am doing this on Cygwin.

Quote:

(extract)
cut: an input delimiter may be specified only when operating on fields
mv: missing destination file operand after `Dev_Shed'
cut: an input delimiter may be specified only when operating on fields
mv: missing destination file operand after `101'

Also I have found that this

Quote:

ls Dev*

returns this...

Quote:

Dev_Shed 101 - First topic.txt Dev_Shed 103 - Third topic.txt
Dev_Shed 102 - Second topic.txt Dev_Shed 104 - Fourth topic.txt

whereas this

Quote:

for f in $(ls Dev*)
do
echo $f
done

returns this...

Quote:

Dev_Shed
101
-
First
topic.txt
Dev_Shed
102
-
Second
topic.txt
Dev_Shed
103
-
Third
topic.txt
Dev_Shed
104
-
Fourth
topic.txt

Any ideas?

October 4th, 2006, 07:00 AM

Ehlanna

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Apart from anything else I did, of course, mean

Code:

-f2-

not

Code:

-c2-

The

Code:

ls -1

returns one file per line.

[edit]
And, as there are spaces in the file name, it woudl be better if you used:

Code:

mv "$f" "$newfn"

[/edit]

Last edited by Ehlanna : October 4th, 2006 at 07:02 AM. Reason: Corrections and improvements!

October 4th, 2006, 09:55 AM

dyname_kebab

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I have made the changes as suggested and this is the error output from

Code:

for f in $(ls -l)
do
newfn=$(echo $f | cut -d" " -f2-)
mv "$f" "$newfn"
done

Quote:

(extract)
mv: cannot stat `total': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `0': No such file or directory
mv: invalid option -- r
Try `mv --help' for more information.
mv: cannot stat `1': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `None': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `0': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Oct': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `4': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `08:40': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Dev_Shed': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `101': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `-': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `First': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `topic.txt': No such file or directory

However, if I change

Code:

ls -l

Code:

ls

This is the error output

Quote:

(extract)
mv: cannot stat `Dev_Shed': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `101': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `-': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `First': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `topic.txt': No such file or directory

October 4th, 2006, 11:03 AM

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It should be "ls -1" (one) not "ls -l"

October 4th, 2006, 12:33 PM

stanleypane

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The problem is more than just correcting the "ls -1" command.

The "for" statement will use a space as it's standard delimiter, so doing:

Code:

for i in `ls -1`
do
  echo $i
done

Will read each value using a single space as a delimiter, so your output would be:

Code:

Dev_Shed
101
-
First
topic.txt

Try this instead:

Code:

ls -1 | while read line
do
  mv -f "${line}" "${line:9}"
done

I just did this under Cygwin with the following results:

Code:

username@PC-020 ~/temp
$ ls
Dev_Shed 101 - first topic.txt   Dev_Shed 103 - third topic.txt
Dev_Shed 102 - second topic.txt

username@PC-020 ~/temp
$ ls -1 | while read line
> do
> mv -f "${line}" "${line:9}"
> done

username@PC-020 ~/temp
$ ls
101 - first topic.txt  102 - second topic.txt  103 - third topic.txt

username@PC-020 ~/temp
$

Comments on this post

Ehlanna agrees!

October 4th, 2006, 12:41 PM

Ehlanna

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Oh dammit, it went through my mind then dropped out again - yes, spaces in the file name (one reason I do not use them!!!!) would be adding to the problem.
Apologies about that.
Other ways of dealing with this can be found using awk and find with xargs, even 'cheating' using tr (I have used most methods!).

October 4th, 2006, 06:34 PM

vlsimpson

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You don't need ls at all:
Bash code (I've noticed the latest bash (V.3) escapes spaces automagically).

Code:

for f in Dev*
do
cp "$f" "${f/Dev_Shed/}"
done

You may as well get rid of the annoying spaces:

Code:

for f in Dev*
do
nospaces=$(echo "$f" | tr ' ' '_')
echo "$f" "${nospaces/Dev_Shed_/}"
done

Comments on this post

dyname_kebab agrees: Great answer.

Last edited by vlsimpson : October 4th, 2006 at 06:38 PM.

#10

October 4th, 2006, 08:44 PM

ghostdog74

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dyname_kebab

PS
I am using Cygwin.

If you have Python:

Code:

import os
os.chdir("/home")
for files in os.listdir(os.getcwd()):
 	if files.startswith('Dev_Shed'):
 		newfilename = files.replace('Dev_Shed ','')
 		os.rename(files,newfilename)

#11

October 5th, 2006, 04:04 AM

dyname_kebab

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Quote:

Originally Posted by vlsimpson

You don't need ls at all:
Bash code (I've noticed the latest bash (V.3) escapes spaces automagically).

You may as well get rid of the annoying spaces:

Code:

for f in Dev*
do
nospaces=$(echo "$f" | tr ' ' '_')
echo "$f" "${nospaces/Dev_Shed_/}"
done

Thanks vlsimpson. This worked.

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