renaming files

[kpatel786]

Hi,

I have a list of files as below:

tacr013444.bdt
tacr013444.bid
tacr014444.bdt
tacr014444.bid
tacr015444.bdt
tacr015444.bid
tacr016444.bdt
tacr016444.bid

I am trying to rename the 444 character to 344 as below

tacr013444.bdt ---> tacro13344.bdt
tacr013444.bid ---> tacro12344.bid
tacr014444.bdt ---> tacr014344.bdt
tacr014444.bid
tacr015444.bdt
tacr015444.bid
tacr016444.bdt
tacr016444.bid

Kindly assist with you inputs. Thanking you in advance

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You could do:

# cat ./myrename
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $newname;
while (<>) {
chomp;
next unless -f $_;
if (m/^tacr\d+?444\..+/) {
( $newname = $_ ) =~ (s/(^tacr\d+?)444(\..+)/${1}344${2}/);
if ( -f $newname ) {
print +( "$newname already exists!\n" );
next;
}
rename( $_, $newname );
}
}

...run as:

# ./myrename file

...where 'file' contains your list of filenames.

This will not clobber existing files of the target name, but leave the old name intact.

Regards!

...JRF...

[OldSchool]

something along the lines of:

for a in `ls tacr*4444.*`
do
newname=`echo $a | sed 's/4444\./3444\./g'
echo $a $newname
# mv $a $newname
done

ought to get you started. beware of spaces in names, name collisions and such...as the above checks nothing and procedes blindly.

if it looks right when run, then uncomment the "mv" and run with it...

[Hein van den Heuvel]

I use PERL for such excercises.

First I make a test to 'see' that it will do the right thing.

For example using 'ls' to find the target files:

ls tac*444.b* | perl -lne 'chomp; $o = $_; s/444\.b/344.b/; print "rename $o, $_" '

Or using the perl glob:

perl -le 'while () { $o = $_; s/444\.b/344.b/; print "rename $o, $_" }'

When satisfied, remove the print and make it real:

perl -le 'while () { $o = $_; s/444\.b/344.b/; rename $o, $_ }'

Babys teps:

-e '...' # command follows in quotes.

while () # loop over glob results, putting each output in automatic variable $_.
{ # block
$o = $_; # make copy of original file name
s/444\.b/344.b/; # substitute $_ data, with anchors as needed
rename $o, $_ # Real work, as function call
} # end-of-block for while.


hth,
Hein.