Hey, I am decent with Linux but I have hit a speed bump. I am trying to get a bash, korn, shell, script or any other type of solution that replaces ( ) parenthesis characters with blank spaces, underscores, or just removes them completely. I have a large list of files in a directory and some of them contain parenthesis and I need them gone or changed. Can anybody please help! I have tried to write scripts and looked online to modify other scripts that remove spaces and other characters but have came up short. ANY help would be greatly appreciated.


Here is a couple of my attempts.

#!/bin/sh

REPLACE_CHAR=":"

for FILE in `find \temp23\ -type f`
do
echo $FILE | grep $REPLACE_CHAR > /dev/null
if [ "$(" == "0" ]
then
mv $FILE `echo $FILE | sed s/:/-/g`
fi
done
----------------------------------------------------------------------

#!/bin/bash
# badname.sh
# Delete filenames in current directory containing bad characters.

for filename in J:\Project Analysis Record\Cole\ADNI\temp23

do
badname=`echo "$filename" | sed -n /[\+\{\;\"\\\=\?~\(\)\<\>\&\*\|\$]/p`
# badname=`echo "$filename" | sed -n '/[+{;"\=?~()<>&*|$]/p'` also works.
# Deletes files containing these nasties: + { ; " \ = ? ~ ( ) < > & * | $
#
rm $badname 2>/dev/null
# ^^^^^^^^^^^ Error messages deep-sixed.
done

# Now, take care of files containing all manner of whitespace.
find . -name "* *" -exec rm -f {} \;
# The path name of the file that _find_ finds replaces the "{}".
# The '\' ensures that the ';' is interpreted literally, as end of command.

exit 0

You don't need a complicated bash loop, rename does what you want easily :
rename -vn 's@stringToChange@resultingString@' *

To replace left parenthesis by an underscore, by example : rename -vn 's@\(@_@' *
You can also remove them : rename -vn 's@\(@@' *

and idem for the right ones : rename -vn 's@\)@_@' *


NB : The -n option is for tests purposes as it won't change your file, but you can see what should have changed (thanks to the -v option)
So when you have found what you like the most remove the -n (and -v if you want)
==> rename 's@ \(@\(>°°\)> @' *
rename 's@\)@ \<(°°<\) @' *

Thanks Ill give it a try first thing tomarrow mouring. I am on my way out. I figured it was a smaller script that I was making. Thanks again.

Hi there

Just an additional note (pardon my bad english ); if you are trying to change a character inside the file itself, and not in the name of the file, you could use the 'replace' script that comes with MySQL (if you have it)

e.g.

replace "a" "[A]" -- my_file.txt

that would make the word 'calendar' become 'c[A]lend[A]r' inside the file.

^ ou sans mySQL, utiliser la commande sed avec la même syntaxe que rename :
edit : "or without mySQL, you can use the sed command which has the same syntax than rename :"

sed -i 's@a@\[A\]@' file.txt

Hey, I tried those suggestions. I didnt quite understand them. However, I just need to replace the parenthesis ( ) in a directory. The filenames themselves have ( ) in them that cannot be there when I run a script. I need them changed or removed. Thanks for the suggestions.

^ the example I gave before do what you want... Didn't you get anything of what I said ?

I also gave examples you could use almost word for word.. =>
rename 's@\(@_@' *
rename 's@\)@_@' *

Ok I ran those commands. But nothign happens. I appreciate your input, do you know any of possible solutions?

are you in the good folder when you run these ???
the "*" at the end of the lines specify on what file it will apply, so here it is on every file of the current directory...

Other than this I don't see where could the problem be

It keeps telling me " Badly Placed ( )" Thats it..... Very frusterating. Thanks for the input so far. Any other solutions you can think of?