Simple Renaming Script

Boffy · 08-12-2005, 08:47 AM

Can anyone advise me of a simple bash or perl script that would go through a directory and remove each " ' " from any filenames that contain it. I am having difficulty getting another script to work properly because it goes mad if a filename contains a " ' ".

Thanks

Boffy

orgcandman · 08-12-2005, 09:00 AM

In your original script, you have to escape the ' by doing \'

I'd say it's probably good practice to not have your script rely on the user making name changes before your script can run. They should be able to use whatever filename they want.

Thanks,
Aaron

theYinYeti · 08-12-2005, 09:04 AM

Code:

find directory/ -type f -name "*'*" -exec bash -c 'new="$(echo "$0" | tr -d "$1")"; mv "$0" "$new"' "{}" "'" \;

This should work, but you may want to test this on a copy of your directory.

Note that if you have for example both "hello.txt" and "hel'lo.txt" in the same dir, the command will want to rename the second to "hello.txt" and conflict with the already existing file.

Yves.

Boffy · 08-12-2005, 09:04 AM

I agree fully that's why I am trying to avoid the problem. At present the filename is loaded into the script automatically from a directory scan. How do I instert a "/" at the appropriate place?

Boffy · 08-12-2005, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by theYinYeti

Code:

find directory/ -type f -name "*'*" -exec bash -c 'new="$(echo "$0" | tr -d "$1")"; mv "$0" "$new"' "{}" "'" \;

This should work, but you may want to test this on a copy of your directory.

Note that if you have for example both "hello.txt" and "hel'lo.txt" in the same dir, the command will want to rename the second to "hello.txt" and conflict with the already existing file.

Yves.

Thats perfect thanks. I don't think that scenario will occur often if ever. Thanks a lot.

sm1else · 08-12-2005, 09:07 AM

I would use 'mmv' to do this:

Code:

mmv "*'*" "#1#2"

Though the above command would need to be run several times (until it says 'No match') and it can be a pain to install if your distro doesnt provide it

This might work with bash (its not recursive though):

Code:

for file in *\'*; do
  newfile=`echo $file | sed -e "s/'//g"`
  echo $newfile
  mv "$file" "$newfile"
done

In your other script (I am assuming that its a shell script too) you could try

Code:

escaped=`echo "$file" | sed -e "s/'/\\\\'/g"`

note that the four backslashes in that command is due to multiple levels of escaping, sed wants \\ in its input but the double quotes needs escaping too so it becomes \\\\