Rename multiple files

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

hello:

I have multiple files with names like: somestring_y2010m01d01
somestring_y2010m01d02
..........
somestring_y2010m12d31

How can I rename change the last part (y2010m##d##) for a sequentially number considering different step. by example if step =2 then

somestring_y2010m01d01 --> somestring_001
somestring_y2010m01d03 --> somestring_002
somestring_y2010m01d05 --> somestring_003
.....................

Thanks in advance

Syl

2

Assuming you do not have spaces in the names of your files:

ls | awk -vSTEP=2 '                                                          
NR % STEP { print "echo mv " $0  " something_" sprintf("%03d", ++count)} ' | 
sh

If the result looks right, remove 'echo'.

1 Like
3

If you quote your variables, it doesn't matter whether there are spaces in the name or not.

There is no need for ls . In fact, in many cases, it will cause problems when there are spaces in the filenames.

n=1
for f in somestring_*
do
  num=$( printf "%03d" "$n" )
  n=$(( $n + 1 ))
  nf=somestring_$num
  mv "$f" "$nf"
done
1 Like
4

You forgot about skipping files. And there is nothing wrong in using ls as a generator in a pipe (of course find . -type f is safer but not because of spaces). I said about spaces just because I was lazy to write "\"" $0 "\"" .

PS And there is a bug in my awk code (I belive I should use ! (NR % STEP) ). But the OP is silent... :slight_smile:

5

Hello:

Just to say thanks to both of you, I found useful yor suggestion, I really appreciate your help.

Regards

   Syl