renaming lots of files

[mynot]

mv *.php.new *.php
doesn't give the result I want - all files ending in php.new renamed with same name and ending .php. What's the easiest way to do it?
Thanks
Tony

[Cabhan]

Correct. The "mv" command takes a list of current files and a single destination. If that destination is a directory, they are moved into the directory; otherwise, they are simply renamed to that last argument. It can be dangerous .

What you actually want is the rename command:
rename(1): Rename files - Linux man page

In your particular instance:

rename .php.new .php *.php.new

[mynot]

Cabhan:
Thanks. Can't see what I'm doing wrong:

rename .php.new .php *.php.new
syntax error at (eval 1) line 1, near "."
Tony

[yancek]

The command cabhan suggested works. You need a space after the second php and before the asteerisk (*) which it doesn't look like you have in your post and would make sense with the error message you posted.

[Cabhan]

Ah. There are two versions of the "rename" command out there: you may have the other one. Run the command:

man rename

from the terminal, and you'll see the man page for yours. It may talk about using a Perl regular expression: that's the other version of rename. For that one, the command would be:

rename 's/\.php\.new/.php/' *.php.new

On the other hand, if it's the same rename that I posted earlier, I don't know what to tell you <_<.

[mynot]

Ah. There are two versions of the "rename" command out there: you may have the other one. Run the command:

man rename

from the terminal, and you'll see the man page for yours. It may talk about using a Perl regular expression: that's the other version of rename. For that one, the command would be:

rename 's/\.php\.new/.php/' *.php.new

On the other hand, if it's the same rename that I posted earlier, I don't know what to tell you <_<.

THat's solved it. Thanks