mmv file rename syntax

[gannggstaz]

I have a directory of folders whose names follow the pattern of "DATE - NAME [" like so:

1978 - Demos (tape)  [
1980 - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables  [
1981 - In God We Trust, Inc  [

I have already used mmv to remove most of the unwanted file name but I got stuck with the [. I want the output to be "NAME (DATE)" but when I run this

mmv "* - *  [" "#2 (#1)"

The output is:

* - *  [ -> #2 (#1) : missing ].
Nothing done.

I think mmv recognizes the bracket as a special character and not treating it as a regular character which it will delete. I think I have to change the quotation marks or something along those lines, but how/what do I change? It follows the same rules as bash scripting as far as I know.

[Rubberman]

Try the "rename" command. It has more flexibility to do what you seem to want. The rename command manpage:

RENAME(1)                  Linux Programmer’s Manual                 RENAME(1)

NAME
       rename - Rename files

SYNOPSIS
       rename from to file...

DESCRIPTION
       rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of from in their name by to.

       For example, given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands

              rename foo foo0 foo?
              rename foo foo0 foo??

       will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278.

       And
              rename .htm .html *.htm

       will fix the extension of your html files.

SEE ALSO
       mmv(1), mv(1)

                                1 January 2000                       RENAME(1)