replace name globally within a directory

kamaleshbv1 · 05-17-2012, 02:41 PM

Hello,

I would like to replace a word in all of my sub-directries,files globally within in a directory . Would like to get a suggestion from you and really appreciate for your help.

Ser Olmy · 05-17-2012, 02:48 PM

You have words in your directories? I only have files.

Do you want to rename files with certain names, or do you want to replace text inside files?

kamaleshbv1 · 05-18-2012, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ser Olmy

You have words in your directories? I only have files.

Do you want to rename files with certain names, or do you want to replace text inside files?

To be specific ...it's for my dream weaver directory. I have large number of directories and sub directries and files which consits of information related to web sites.So recently i changed name to one my directories for which i need to replace the name in the linked files.This i want to do globaally rather than going into individual file and changing them which is time consuming.

saivnoba · 05-18-2012, 12:13 AM

What linux distro and desktop environment are you using. I think XFCE desktop has some batch rename program. Search for something similar (I read somewhere pyRename or pyRenamer).

grail · 05-18-2012, 12:28 AM

So I would suggest sed used with find and perhaps fed into a loop depending on the complexity of the change. This may sound a little vague, but so far, so has your description.
You will need to provide examples if you want more than suggested solution path?

Ser Olmy · 05-18-2012, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamaleshbv1

To be specific ...it's for my dream weaver directory. I have large number of directories and sub directries and files which consits of information related to web sites.So recently i changed name to one my directories for which i need to replace the name in the linked files.This i want to do globaally rather than going into individual file and changing them which is time consuming.

An algorithm like this in a script should do the trick:

function replace_text($name)

if $name is a directory, then
{
for every $directory_entry in $name, do:
{
call replace_text($directory_entry)
}
done
}
else
{
# You may want to add some logic here to
# exclude certain files
sed --in-place=.bak "s/old-text/new-text/g" $name
}
end if

Are you using the bash shell?