listing sequences of files to the shell

jimmyj90 · 10-20-2004, 12:35 PM

I am wondering how to write a shell script that would list all of the files in a directory but if it is a part of a sequence list it as one.

EXAMPLE

/home/test/

file.1.txt
file.2.txt
file.3.txt
file2.1.txt
file2.2.txt
file2.3.txt
file2.4.txt
not_a_seq_file.txt

WOULD LIKE IT TO READ ->

/home/test/

file.1-3.txt
file2.1-4.txt
not_a_seq_file.txt

any one have any ideas on how i could do this?

thanks
j

Samsara · 10-20-2004, 12:42 PM

Try perl. I was actually thinking of writing something like this a while ago, but I'm not gonna get round to it, sorry!

Regards,

Samsara

PS: Okay, to get you started:
1) test if the file name contains a numerical character;
2) increment the numerical character and ask whether the file exists,
3) repeat until unsuccessful
4) voila

NB: note that some people count "00" "01" .... "10" "11" ...
whereas others count "1", "2", ... "10", "11" ...

jimmyj90 · 10-20-2004, 01:04 PM

thanks Samsara

I will look into it and post my results.

j

michaelk · 10-20-2004, 04:06 PM

To further define.
"1" "10" ..."2" "20" ... would be sorting alphanumerical
"1", "2", ... "10", "11" ... would be sorting numerical.

Samsara · 10-20-2004, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michaelk
To further define.
"1" "10" ..."2" "20" ... would be sorting alphanumerical
"1", "2", ... "10", "11" ... would be sorting numerical.

Which is irrelevant to the solution I proposed, so long as the first digit of the varying position in the numerically smallest filename is not greater than the corresponding first digit of any subsequent file.

Regards,

Samsara