Bash script to rename files

[LinuxDummie]

I am new with bash scripts, but I managed to take a filename and replace the characters I do not like (in a variable).

At the end of the script when I try:
/bin/mv $file1 $file2

I get an error...

If I try:
echo /bin/mv $file1 $file2

I can paste that output to my terminal, and WOW, it works.

The input files do contain spaces (which is one reason I'm renaming them ), and the error msg is about the '\' characters I had to include.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[vsemaska]

What's the error you're getting?

EDIT: It sounds like you have hidden characters that causes the command to fail but don't show up in the output. That would be why copy/paste would work.

[LinuxDummie]

Sorry, my error message:

/bin/mv: invalid option -- \
Try `/bin/mv --help' for more information.

That's all.

[vsemaska]

My mistake as well. I should have said to list the command being executed and the error message.

The message '/bin/mv: invalid option -- \' indicates that mv somehow thinks the backslash is an option. Make sure you have this as the 1st line in the script:

#!/bin/bash -vx

The '-vx' will cause bash to list everything. Then post the command and error message.

[LinuxDummie]

Wow, that's a lot of output...

/bin/mv ${str1}.mp3 ${str2}.mp3
+ /bin/mv 'Tool\' '-\' '10\,000\' 'days\' '\[01\]\' vicarious.mp3 Tool_-_10-000_days_01_vicarious.mp3
/bin/mv: invalid option -- \
Try `/bin/mv --help' for more information.

Hope that's enough

[LinuxDummie]

This is from the output too:

str1='Tool\ -\ 10\,000\ days\ \[01\]\ vicarious'
str2=Tool_-_10-000_days_01_vicarious

I don't get why str1 has quotes around it, and str2 doesn't

[vsemaska]

How big is the total output. If not too big then post it or at least the command that assigns str1, the before and after expansion. Your post of the mv command shows the before and after (lines starting with + is after expansion):

/bin/mv ${str1}.mp3 ${str2}.mp3
+ /bin/mv 'Tool\' '-\' '10\,000\' 'days\' '\[01\]\' vicarious.mp3 Tool_-_10-000_days_01_vicarious.mp3

Or post it as an attachment. The output will need a file extension of .txt.

[LinuxDummie]

Ok, here's the whole output:

[vsemaska]

OK, I see your adding backslashes to the 1st string by parsing the string 1 char. at a time. If you look at this segment you'll see:

+ temp=l
+ '[' l == ' ' ']'
+ '[' l == , ']'
+ '[' l == '[' ']'
+ '[' l == ']' ']'
+ str=Tool
+ let count=count+1
+ '[' 4 '!=' 33 ']'
+ temp=' '
+ '[' ' ' == ' ' ']'
+ temp='\ '
+ '[' '\ ' == , ']'
+ '[' '\ ' == '[' ']'
+ '[' '\ ' == ']' ']'
+ str='Tool\ '

In otherwords, when it comes across a space and tries to replace it with '\ ', that's when the quotes are added to the string.

Try enclosing the command that appends the character with double quotes:
str="${str}$temp"

See if that helps. I can try to explain why this is happening later.

[LinuxDummie]

Tried it, same error message.

Nuts.