Rename a bunch of files

auwolf · 10-02-2006, 10:09 PM

Hi,

New on site and Linux.

Looking for a script to rename files.
Have a spreadsheet with existing name to new name.
Ext is the same for all.

Thanx

bathory · 10-03-2006, 02:02 AM

Welcome to LQ.
You can use "rename" for your task.

Code:

man rename

for details on how to use it.

Regards

acid_kewpie · 10-03-2006, 02:39 AM

new to lq? new to internet forums? please try to post threads in suitable forums, and post them ONCE.

moved to Linux - Newbie.

stress_junkie · 10-03-2006, 09:02 AM

If you have KDE then you can use KRename. It's great if you have a lot of files that need the same change to their name. I use it mostly to change upper case to lower case or to change file name extensions such as jpeg to jpg. It's only worth using if you have a lot of files to rename since it takes several steps to enter the information about how to change the file names.

auwolf · 10-05-2006, 05:53 PM

The files do not follow, I have a document to what the new name should be.
The extensions for all are the same.

chrism01 · 10-05-2006, 08:17 PM

I think we need more info eg example

ckoniecny · 10-05-2006, 09:11 PM

You could do something like:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

PATH="/home/user/files"

cd $PATH

for files in *
do
     mv $files "whatever you want your file named to"
done

You need a unique name for "whatever you want your file named to" or else you'll overwrite the same file.

auwolf · 10-06-2006, 12:51 AM

Lets try again,

existing name
decw-2rch-0011.pdf
deew-2rch-0011.pdf
deel-1sga-0001.pdf
deew-5rhg-0001.pdf

new name
qsr-xr2-plan-500110.pdf
qsr-xr2-plan-500011.pdf
qsr-ewp-plan-500001.pdf
qsr-cwp-civl-500001.pdf

Something in the line of this. The files names are unique and will be renamed
to a unique new name. I have a spreadsheet to tell me what the new name should be.
Can put it in a word doc as per above.

Thanx for the help so far.

timmeke · 10-06-2006, 01:50 AM

Using Rename or mv to rename your files is one part of the solution. The other part would involve
reading the data from your spread sheet/document.
There are many ways to accomplish that second part, but one of the easiest would be:
1. Copy the contents of your spread sheet/word doc in a plain text file, preferrably specifying the original
name & it's corresponding new name on the same line. The delimiter between both columns is rather
irrelevant.
Alternatively, if the spreadsheet has 2 columns (with old and new names), try saving your spreadsheet in
csv (comma separated values) format. This would accomplish putting the old/new name pairs, each on a
separate line, using ',' as delimiter.
2. Write a simple script to iterate over each line in the plain text file. Use 'cut' to extract both file names
and 'mv' to do your renaming.
Basically, this script would look somthing like (if the delimiter isn't a space or tab):

Code:

#!/bin/bash
DELIM='your_delimiter';
for i in `your_plain_file`; do
   old_name=`cut -d"${DELIM}" -f1`; #assuming your old file names are in first column
   new_name=`cut -d"${DELIM}" -f2`; #and new names are in second (if the other way around, switch the -f 
                                    #options)
   mv ${old_name} ${new_name}
   if (( $? != 0 )); then
       echo "mv ${old_name} ${new_name} failed.";
   fi;
done;

You may want to replace "mv" by "echo", just to see if the script would rename exactly the way you'd like it to, before actually renaming anything.

Ynot Irucrem · 10-06-2006, 01:55 AM

EDIT: Sniped... Well there you go, you should probably go for the other one. Looks nicer.

EDIT 2: wow, that is so much simpler.
*hits head against wall*

WARNING: I'm a complete n00b, and I'm not even on a *nix machine right now to test this. Maybe you should wait 'til someone replies and corrects me or at least make a copy of the directory to try this in.

Assuming your spreadsheet is like:

oldname1 newname1
oldname2 newname2
oldname3 newname3

If there are no inconsistencies between the files and the spreadsheet (no files in the list that aren't in the folder, or vice versa):

1. sort alphabetically by the oldname column
2. delete the oldname column
3. export to .csv

Code:

#!/bin/bash

dir = "/path/to/files/"
csv = "/path/to/spreadsheet.csv"

cd $dir

textArray[0] = ""
i = 0

while read line; do
    textArray[i] = $line
    i = $(expr $i + 1)
done < $csv

i = 0

for files in *; do
    mv $files "$textArray[i]".pdf
    i = $(expr $i + 1)
done

If there are inconsistencies:

This method will run slower, which may or may not be noticeable depending on how many files we're talking about.

1. export to .csv

Code:

#!/bin/bash

dir = "/path/to/files/"
csv = "/path/to/spreadsheet.csv"

cd $dir

textArray[0] = ""
i = 0

while read line; do
    textArray[i] = $line
    i = $(expr $i + 1)
done < $csv

for files in *; do
    i = 0
    while [ "${textArray[i]:0:$(expr index \"$textArray[i]\" ,)}.pdf" != "$files" ]; do
         i = $(expr $i + 1)
    done
    mv $files ${line:$(expr index "$textArray[i]" ,)}.pdf
done

If the spreadsheet values contain the ".pdf", remove all the ".pdf"s from the script.