rename file names : replace dots by spaces, keep the extension

Reda01 · 03-28-2011, 05:45 AM

Hello,

I am trying to rename a lot of files but need to keep the extension :

the files are films names :

a.b.c.d.***.iso

the result should be replacing "." by spaces " "

this command :

for files in *.iso ; do mv "$files" `echo "$files" | tr '.' ' '`; done

put a space also before the extension iso ??

How can I rename files from

"a.b.c.d.iso" to "a b c d.iso"

thank you

dwhitney67 · 03-28-2011, 06:22 AM

I do not consider myself an expert with Bash, but until someone else chimes in with a better solution, you can try the following:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

EXT=".iso"   # the extension of files that we are interested in

for file in *$EXT; do

        FILE_LEN=(${#file}-${#EXT})   # deduce length of filename w/o extension

        MODFILE=`echo ${file:0:$FILE_LEN} | tr '.' ' '`   # convert file name using substring of full file name

        mv $file "${MODFILE}${EXT}"   # perform move; surround modified filename with quotes so spaces aren't literally interpreted.

done

Reda01 · 03-28-2011, 06:36 AM

Perfect, it works
thank you

grail · 03-28-2011, 07:05 AM

Well to add to dwight's code, you could also do it all in bash:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

EXT=".iso"   # the extension of files that we are interested in

for file in *$EXT; do

        MODFILE=${file%$EXT}   # remove extension

        mv $file "${MODFILE//./ }${EXT}"   # perform move; change dots for spaces; surround modified filename with quotes so spaces aren't literally interpreted.

done

I thought I would add, interestingly you cannot do the reverse once you have files with spaces as the for loop will break it up based on the space.
For this and other word splitting reasons most would try not to create files with spaces if it can be helped. (just my 2 cents)

Don't forget to mark as SOLVED once you have a solution.

Nominal Animal · 03-28-2011, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reda01

How can I rename files from "a.b.c.d.iso" to "a b c d.iso"

I recommend either using the shell argument array, or using find to list the file names one per line, so you can safely work with file names containing any characters.

Using shell argument array:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ]; then
    echo "" >&2
    echo "Usage: $0 [ -h | --help ]" >&2
    echo "       $0 file .." >&2
    echo "" >&2
    echo "This will transform the name of the specified file(s)." >&2
    echo "" >&2
    exit 0
fi

for path in "$@" ; do
    dir="`dirname "$path"`"
    file="`basename "$path"`"

    # Split file name and extension
    ext=".${file##*.}"
    old="${file%.*}"
    [ "$old" == "$file" ] && ext=""
    new="$old"

    # Modify "$new" to suit your needs. Dots to spaces:
    new="${new//./ }"

    if [ "$new" != "$old" ]; then
        mv -vi "$dir/$old$ext" "$dir/$new$ext" || exit $?
    fi
done

If you save the above as fix-file-name, you can then run e.g.

Code:

./fix-file-name *.iso

Check the shell parameter expansion in the Bash Reference Manual for further tricks you can do to the file names with the above.

If you wish to operate on all files in a directory tree, it's easier to use find. The following script takes at least one parameter; see man find for details:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ]; then
    echo "" >&2
    echo "Usage: $0 [ -h | --help ]" >&2
    echo "       $0 find-parameters ..." >&2
    echo "" >&2
    echo "This will transform all file and directory names matching the find-parameters." >&2
    echo "See 'man find' for details and explanations." >&2
    echo "" >&2
    echo "Example:" >&2
    echo "       $0 . -name '*.iso'" >&2
    echo "" >&2
    exit 0
fi
EOS="`echo -en '\0'`"
find "$@" -depth -printf '%p\0' | while read -d "$EOS" path ; do
    dir="`dirname "$path"`"
    file="`basename "$path"`"

    ext=".${file##*.}"
    old="${file%.*}"
    [ "$old" == "$file" ] && suffix=""
    new="$old"

    # Modify "$new" to suit your needs.
    new="${new//./ }"

    # Only rename if changed.
    if [ "$new" != "$old" ]; then
        mv -vi "$dir/$old$ext" "$dir/$new$ext" || exit $?
    fi
done
exit $?

If you save the above as find-rename, you can then run e.g.

Code:

./find-rename .

Hope this helps.

Reda01 · 03-28-2011, 08:54 AM

Hello Guys,

I tested all the scripts, all of them work fine.

Thank you very much