file rename

**ibaboom** · 12-29-2009

Good day. I am attempting to use the tool 'rename "regex-rule" files '

I have a group of files zzzzfpa.00nnnnnnnnnnn where n is any number. So I would like to get rid of the zzzz and leave the rest of the file name. Here is what I have tried rename -n 's/zzzz//' zzzzfpa*
it returns nothing but if I do an ls zzzzfpa* it returns the thousands of files I have to rename.

Thanks
Allen

**hazel** · 12-29-2009

Hint: you need to use the for command:

Code:

for name in zzzzfpa.nn* do
(code to do what you want to each $name)
done

I leave it to you to work out the actual code. We don't solve homework problems here.

**ibaboom** · 12-29-2009

Thanks actually the for loop is how I did solve the problem. But I am attempting to learn how to use the rename function. I thought that maybe the fpa. with a dot being a special character is what is causing me headaches but I have done what I know with regex to work around it and so far have not figured it out. GRR

for f in zzzz*; do mv $f ${f/zzzz/}; done

But I would think it would be a simple thing to do with rename such does not seem to be the case.

The examples I have seen only refer to replacing the last portion of the file. IE rename "s/ *//g" *.mp3
woould remove all of the spaces out of a .mp3 file name. So, I must have some learning to do here on regex's

Thanks
Allen

**ibaboom** · 12-29-2009

hmm this could be a redhat bug, or it could be that rename does not really take a regex except from perl?

rename zzzzfpa. fpa. zzzzfpa*

works fine bit if I try to use the -n -v or -f switches or a regex it does not work at all

Thanks
Allen

**hazel** · 12-30-2009

I don't think you can use regular expressions directly on the command line. The rules for filename "globbing" are different. You would need to use a utility that understands regexps. You might be able to do it by echoing the filenames through sed and back-quoting the result. Have a look at the man page for sed. It's a very powerful utility.

**yancek** · 12-30-2009

But I would think it would be a simple thing to do with rename such does not seem to be the case.

This worked for me in a test directory and seems like a pretty simple use of rename:

rename zzzz "" zzzzfpa*

**drl** · 12-31-2009

Hi.

My take on this is that there is more than one rename command. If you are on:

Code:

OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.18-164.9.1.el5, i686
Distribution        : CentOS release 5.4 (Final)

then you would have access to:

Code:

SYNOPSIS
       rename from to file...

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

(CentOS is essentially RedHat without the support contract.)

However, on a distribution of Linux such as:

Code:

OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian GNU/Linux 5.0

you would have access to:

Code:

mv (1)               - move (rename) files
prename (1)          - renames multiple files
rename (1)           - renames multiple files
rename.ul (1)        - Rename files
mmv (1)              - move/copy/append/link multiple files by wildcard patterns

mostly from man -k rename

The rename and prename there seem to be the same, whereas rename.ul is:

Code:

SYNOPSIS
       rename from to file...
       rename -V

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

which corresponds to the CentOS rename.

The utility that understands perl regexes on Debian is:

Code:

SYNOPSIS
       rename [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] perlexpr [ files ]

DESCRIPTION
       "rename" renames the filenames supplied according to the rule specified
       as the first argument.  The perlexpr argument is a Perl expression ...

I think Hazel was trying to guide you to use mv in a loop, which is basic method of renaming files. After that, the discussion seemed to be diverge into different utilities.

Most Linux distributions are the same, but differences occur, so it is best to specify what you are using, and to look at man pages on that distribution.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl

**hazel** · 01-01-2010

Well, thank you drl! On this forum you start off by trying to help someone and end up getting helped yourself. I'd never heard of rename before this; I just looked at the man page for it and it's a wonderful way of doing global edits on file names.

**ghostdog74** · 01-01-2010

Code:

for file in zzzzfpa.*
do
  echo mv "$file" "${file#zzzz}"
done

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