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Old 09-26-2009, 08:00 PM   #1
kmkocot
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Registered: Dec 2007
Location: Tuscaloosa, AL
Posts: 126

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Need to add an extension to all files in a directory


Hi all,

I have a directory with around 5,000 files that do not have an extension (or any regularity that I could take advantage of using rename). I want to append the extension ".ab1" to the name of each of these files. Can anyone help me out?

Example filenames:
Pl_xlvO_36A01
Pl_xlvO_35H12
Pl_xlvO_35H07

Thanks!
Kevin
 
Old 09-26-2009, 08:10 PM   #2
lutusp
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Distribution: Fedora
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmkocot View Post
Hi all,

I have a directory with around 5,000 files that do not have an extension (or any regularity that I could take advantage of using rename). I want to append the extension ".ab1" to the name of each of these files. Can anyone help me out?

Example filenames:
Pl_xlvO_36A01
Pl_xlvO_35H12
Pl_xlvO_35H07

Thanks!
Kevin
Do it this way:

Code:
path="/path/of/interest"

find $path -type f | grep -iPv "\.ab1$" | while read filepath
do
   mv $filepath $filepath.ab1
done
The trick in a situation like this is to avoid renaming already-renamed files. That's what the grep filter does -- it eliminates files that are already renamed.

WARNING: Test this script on a copied sample of the files in a separate, disposable directory before applying it to the original files. I say this because, for reasons that should be obvious, I haven't tested it.
 
Old 09-26-2009, 08:57 PM   #3
kmkocot
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Registered: Dec 2007
Location: Tuscaloosa, AL
Posts: 126

Original Poster
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Perfect. That did it! Thanks!

I think I understand everything except the function of the $ after .ab1 in the grep command. To try to figure that out I tried it again without the $ but it still worked.
 
Old 09-27-2009, 10:19 AM   #4
verdeboy2k
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Registered: Jan 2004
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The '$' matches 'End of Line' in a regular expression, just as '^" matches the beginning.
 
  


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