Multiple File Rename

windisch · 11-10-2005, 10:26 AM

Is there a way I can do a rename of a large number of file at once? For example:

I want to rename (technically replace) any (, ), [, or ] in the file name of my mp3's. My script has an issue with those in the file name, and I would like to replace the ( or [ with "- " and just remove the ] or ). Is that something that can be done, or should I continue to do it by hand?

Thanks,
Adam Windisch

homey · 11-10-2005, 10:33 AM

Can you show an example of what they look like?

windisch · 11-10-2005, 10:40 AM

unfortunately they all have a different look, but for the most part it's "Artist - Title.mp3" sometime a title will be in there. Most of the songs that I need to rename have the brackets or parentheses at the end before .mp3.

windisch · 11-10-2005, 10:53 AM

If this is anything that takes more than 5 minutes of work for anyone on this forum to figure out, then I don't want to bother anyone. I just wanted to see if there was an easy way to do this. If not, I can change them manually.

homey · 11-10-2005, 11:27 AM

Maybe something like this. If it works ok, you can remove the echo from
echo mv -v "$dir/$i" "$dir/$j" 2> /dev/null

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#Example: ./test /home/images
usage()
{
   echo "Usage: $0 Directory_Name"
   exit 1;
}

test -d "$1" || usage
dir="$1"

ls $dir | \
while read i; do
    j=`echo "$i" | tr -d '[' | tr -d ']' | tr ',' '-'`
    echo mv -v "$dir/$i" "$dir/$j" 2> /dev/null
done

LinuxLala · 11-10-2005, 11:51 AM

Nice script homey, could you please also explain it to benefit others. I for one, would love to know what part is sent to /dev/null, obviously it is the brackets and stuff but how

homey · 11-10-2005, 11:59 AM

The 2> /dev/null part is just to get rid of noise when you have a file name doesn't get changed. You get a message saying the old file and new file are the same.

This is the part that gets rid of brackets and replaces ( , ) with ( - )
tr -d '[' | tr -d ']' | tr ',' '-'

LinuxLala · 11-10-2005, 12:02 PM

Sorry to bug again but why couldn't the noise be directed with ">". What is the need for the 2?

Thanks for explaining.

windisch · 11-10-2005, 12:11 PM

That replaces , with -? I think I typed my request incorectly. I would like ( and [ to be replaced by - and ) and ] to be removed. Sorry about the confusion.

homey · 11-10-2005, 12:13 PM

The message is an stderr so that is redirected to /dev/null
If you don't want to see what the mv command is doing, remove the -v

Output redirection:
0 = stdin input device such as keyboard
1 = stdout output device usually the console
2 = stderr error message usually displayed at the console
Example: ls nofile > test 2>&1 This sends the error message to a file called test.
Example: ls | tee test This sends output to the screen and to a file called test.

LinuxLala · 11-10-2005, 12:17 PM

*linuxlala stands up and does the salami act for homey
salami salami salami

Thanks buddy.

Cheers.

homey · 11-10-2005, 12:19 PM

Quote:

That replaces , with -? I think I typed my request incorectly. I would like ( and [ to be replaced by - and ) and ] to be removed. Sorry about the confusion.

Like this?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#Example: ./test /home/images
usage()
{
   echo "Usage: $0 Directory_Name"
   exit 1;
}

test -d "$1" || usage
dir="$1"

ls $dir | \
while read i; do
    j=`echo "$i" | tr -d ')' | tr -d ']' | tr '(' '-' | tr '[' '-'`
    echo mv -v "$dir/$i" "$dir/$j" 2> /dev/null
done