shell command for bulk 'rename'

anon201 · 12-16-2008, 04:51 AM

Hi
I have a list of mp3 files which dont have extension at the end. I want to add the extension .mp3, by a shell command or small script. plz help.
more - is it possible to rename the files as Artist-Title etc extracting from mp3 tag?

/ashraf

sycamorex · 12-16-2008, 05:07 AM

Before you do anything, backup your mp3 collection (just in case)
You should be in the directory where the mp3 files are and create a script:

Code:

for i in *
do
mv $i $i.mp3
done

You need to grant exec permissions:

Code:

chmod +x myscript

Finally you can run it:

Code:

./myscript

colucix · 12-16-2008, 05:14 AM

To add an extension you can simply concatenate it to the original filename using a for loop. For example, suppose you have all (and only) the mp3 files in a given directory, you can do something like

Code:

cd /path/to/dir
for file in *
do
  mv "$file" "$file".mp3
done

do some tests on dummy files (or copies of the originals) before actually run the mv command. For the renaming part using information from the mp3 tags, I suggest eyeD3. For example the command

Code:

eyeD3 --rename="%A - %t" $FILE

will rename the mp3 file using Artist and Title taken from the tag. Take a look at the manual page for other useful format specifications.

Edit: sycamorex beat me! Anyway, I embedded $file within double quotes to manage file names with blank spaces (very common for mp3s).

Agrouf · 12-16-2008, 05:16 AM

ls | xargs -ifile mv file file.mp3

anon201 · 12-17-2008, 03:44 AM

Thanks a lot to you all for the tip. really in the folder there are some file with .mp3 extension and there are some without the mp3 extension. some players like kaffeine dont take the files without mp3 extension in the playlist automatically. so i need to rename the file without the extension.
so the code should be,
if (file dont have mp3 or have no extension)
then rename.
how can i check that the file have no extension ?

thanks in advance for your answers.

Agrouf · 12-17-2008, 03:46 AM

ls | grep -v "\.mp3$" | xargs -ifile mv file file.mp3