Loop through all files in a directory. Bash/Perl script?

Nzo · 12-07-2009, 04:55 PM

Hi,

I am trying to loop through all the files in a directory, so I can encrypt them all with pdftk.

I am using cygwin.

The file names are as follows:

June_other_ID_data.pdf

So I am trying to create a script that does this (I am used to PHP):

Code:

ls -a | $file

for each $file{
    $pieces=explode("_", $file)

    pdftk $file output $pieces[0]_$i.pdf owner_pw foopass
    $i++;
}

Is it best to use perl/bash?

How would I write this in either?

Thanks!

Tinkster · 12-07-2009, 05:05 PM

What does the pieces & explode stuff mean, where did $i come from?

Nzo · 12-07-2009, 05:09 PM

explode just means put that filename into an array.

so
$pieces=explode("_", "june_this_info");

$pieces would now be an array:
[0]june [1]this [2]info

$i is the loop counter, should be set to 0 at the start of the loop, just because each month has 4 files. (june_01, june_02 etc).

Obviously the code is just a rough example of what I need but I have little experience of scripting in bash.

Nzo · 12-07-2009, 05:40 PM

any help please?

chrism01 · 12-07-2009, 05:58 PM

Sounds like you want something like

Code:

for file in *.pdf
do
    cnt=0
    mth=$(echo $file|cut -d'_' -f1)
    pdftk $file output ${mth}_${cnt}.pdf owner_pw foopass
    (( cnt++ ))
done

I'm not entirely clear about the 4 files per mth and whether you are doing only one file per run.

You should bookmark/read
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

catkin · 12-08-2009, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nzo

Obviously the code is just a rough example of what I need but I have little experience of scripting in bash.

You have explained the code to us by using pseudo-bash but it's so far from bash that I don't know enough about what you are trying to do to begin answering the question -- or even to begin asking for further information to clarify the problem. Please explain the problem in English.

Nzo · 12-09-2009, 05:25 PM

Code:

#!/bin/bash
cnt=0
for file in *.pdf
do
    mth=$(echo $file|cut -d'_' -f1)
    pdftk $file output all/${mth}_${cnt}.pdf owner_pw pass
    (( cnt++ ))
done

thanks Chris - using this code but it stops after 4 repetitions/4 files.

Why is it stopping after 4? I get no error output?

Catkin, what im trying to do in English:

I have a directory of PDF files.

The file name convention is:
"January_2342.pdf",
"January_file_3342.pdf",
"January_2442.pdf",
"January_letter_2342.pdf",
"January_file_2342.pdf",
"February_07.pdf",
"Febuary_file_2342.pdf".

The month will always be first.

I want to write a script to encrypt all these files, and keep the month, so my new encrypted files will be:
"january_01.pdf", "january_02.pdf" etc.

The command to encrypt a PDF is:
pdftk original.pdf output encrypted.pdf owner_user password

Nzo · 12-09-2009, 05:32 PM

Some of the files are PDF

shopt -s nocaseglob

fixed it. Thanks alot for the code Chris

chrism01 · 12-09-2009, 05:43 PM

No worries. Feel free to click on the blue thumb

ghostdog74 · 12-09-2009, 08:09 PM

no need to call external cut

Code:

cnt=0
for file in *.pdf
do
    IFS="_"; 
    set -- $file
    mth=$1
    unset IFS
    echo pdftk $file output all/${mth}_${cnt}.pdf owner_pw pass
    (( cnt++ ))
done