How to batch rename files from command line? (Solved)

[april]

rename 's/%20/ /g' *.mp4

I'm trying to rename a bunch of files in one directory
opening a terminal in the directory and issuing the command gives no change and no errors

Anyone know whats going on here?
I don't think its handled by busybox

[Semme]

April, a little food for thought till SFR pops up..

http://rajaseelan.com/2009/07/12/how-to ... -in-linux/

http://andrewault.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... linux.html

[rcrsn51]

What are you trying to do? Take all the spaces out of the filenames? Please give an example.

[SFR]

Someone was calling me?

Code: Select all

for FILE in *.mp4; do mv "${FILE}" "${FILE//%20/ }"; done

Greetings!

[april]

Thanks

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for FILE in *.mp4; do mv "${FILE}" "${FILE//%20/ }"; done

gives " are the same file " message in a terminal and nothing gets changed

The files look like this
"bob%20the%20builder%20does%20things.mp4"
and I want to get them to look like this
"bobthebuilderdoesthings.mp4"

There is something strange about the behaviour of "%20"


I also tried this from Semme's suggestion-thanks Semme

Code: Select all

# $ for mp4 in *; do new_name=$(echo $mp4 | sed -e 's/%20/ /g' | sed -e 's/
/ /g'); echo file $mp4 will be renamed to $new_name;mv -v $mp4 "$new_name"; done
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'
# 

The second sed was left in just because I didn't think it would affect anything

Edit - I finally got one to work albeit slowly , one at a time
Its from the second suggestion by Semme

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#!/bin/sh for filename in *$1* do mv -fT "$filename" `echo $filename | sed -e "s/$1/$2/"` done

The above saved as "massren" and made executeable
then

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massren %20 ""

changes one at a time in each filename so I just kept doing it until it gave an error and voila

[RSH]

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#!/bin/sh
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Submitted File
subfile="$1"
echo "`basename "$subfile"`" > /tmp/subfile_tmp

# Parts in File Name to be removed - if needed, add more here
FPARTS="%20 - _"

for FPART in $FPARTS;
do
	S_OUT="$FPART"
	S_IN=""
	for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20;
	do
		sed -i 's|'$S_OUT'|'$S_IN'|' /tmp/subfile_tmp
	done
done
# Remove real Spaces in File name
for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20;
do
	sed -i 's| ||' /tmp/subfile_tmp
done

read newname < /tmp/subfile_tmp

mv "$subfile" "`dirname "$subfile"`/$newname"

rm -f /tmp/subfile_tmp

exit 0

This is a Script that I'm still using to remove parts like %20 from a filename.

[GustavoYz]

Hi, "%20" is escape string for empty space as used by URLs.

Try this:

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for i in *.mp4; do mv $i $(echo $i | sed 's|%20||g' ); done

Or even better, use detox.

[SFR]

gives " are the same file " message in a terminal and nothing gets changed
[snip]
There is something strange about the behaviour of "%20"

That's strange indeed, but let's see if we get the same results of this one:

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# a="abc%20def%20ghi"; echo $a; echo ${a//%20/}
abc%20def%20ghi
abcdefghi
# 

The only thing I can think of ATM is older version of Bash (3.something.something perhaps?).
If that's the case, just try the above line in 'ash' or 'busybox sh' shell instead.

EDIT: or use RSH's/GustavoYz's sed solutions, which should work regardless of used shell.

EDIT2: I just found that if it's Bash-3.X.X, the % sign has to be escaped:

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a="abc%20def%20ghi"; echo $a; echo ${a//\%20/}

Greetings!

[rcrsn51]

SFR's version works for me, except that there is an extra space before the final }.

[april]

Thanks all it will take a little time to check these out
However changed above post with this

Edit - I finally got one to work albeit slowly , one at a time
Its from the second suggestion by Semme
Code:
#!/bin/sh for filename in *$1* do mv -fT "$filename" `echo $filename | sed -e "s/$1/$2/"` done

The above saved as "massren" and made executeable
then
Code:
massren %20 ""
changes one at a time in each filename so I just kept doing it until it gave an error and voila

Code: Select all

for i in *.mp4; do mv $i $(echo $i | sed 's|%20||g' ); done 

Worked brilliantly thank you GustavoYz

[Flash]

Or you can open the directory with ROX, select all the files whose names you want to change, right-click on them and choose Rename from the menu. Enter %20 in the first box. leave the second box empty, and see what happens when you hit Enter. ROX won't actually change the file names until you click on Rename at the bottom, so if you don't like the way it looks, just Cancel out.

[april]

Well theres one I hav'nt seen before thanks Flash .Works well only one %20 at a time but you can see them change before commiting

[Puppus Dogfellow]

could the built in gFnRename utility be of any use to you?

[april]

Thats another that works and I have never used that before .
Thanks Puppus Dogfellow

[Geoffrey]

Renaming in XFCE wm using Thunar Bulk Rename works

[gcmartin]

@Flash shows a way to use ROX. I would like to do so,but need help.
I have a folder with files in it that end with a date ; such as " - 20120407.txt". There are 27 such files in the folder. In ROX, I

1. highlight the files
2. right-click to Rename

But, I am lost as to how to set the 2 top typeable boxes to allow me to delete the " - 20120407" portion in the name
for all of the files. Question #1 - How would I use ROX Rename to do this?

When I type - 20120407 in the left box and leave the right empty, I get

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None of the names changed, Nothing to do.

Question #2 - And, if I wanted to change the datestamp to, say, "tested and confirmed", how would I do that, too?

Guidance anyone?

[Flash]

It's good that all the file names you want to change end with the same date.txt. That makes it easy (I hope. )
Try this after highlighting the files and choosing Rename: in the left ROX box put date.txt. In the right ROX box put tested and confirmed.txt. See if that works.

[gcmartin]

Same result.

[gcmartin]

Hark! The problem is discovered.

ROX's bulk rename does what it is designed to do, but, for a "new to app" user it is all-too-easy to NOT notice that each clickable field has mouse popups associated.

But, there is NO mouse popups to provide the steps via an example on how to use the app. I can see how it did confuse.

To use this ROX app, one needs to know that it is a 3 step process. The process, I think, is a good one but, this screen is NOT helpful if you don't have someone to keep nudging you into the right direction. Way too many minutes and support personnel to use something which should be so obvious.

OK, the 3 steps are (for anyone else)

1. Fill-in the "Replace" and the "With" fields
2. Click the "Apply" button, on the very right-side of the fields, to visually verify the action that the tool will take
3. Click "Rename" button, at bottom of window, to carry out the actions you verified

Done!

BTW @Flash, thanks, again.

[MochiMoppel]

Hark! The problem is discovered.

Really?
Try this: