Todd Zullinger wrote:
...
There are other rename programs that do work this way. It's annoying
if you switch between such systems and find out that rename doesn't
behave like you're expecting. :)
Which is a good reason to not depend on it.
I've learned to type up something like this:
$ for f in *.{JP*G,jpeg};do n=`echo "$f"| \
sed -e "s/\.jpe*g/.jpg/i"`; echo mv "$f" "$n"; done
easily enough that I don't miss something like 'rename' too much. I can
easily tailor the command to the need of the moment (e.g. substitute tr
for sed) and I can easily see the results before I do anything horrible
(note the 'echo mv').
For a rename command you can easily take with you, here's one that
allows regular expressions, and comes complete with diagnostics and
error checking ;-)
# usage: rename from to files...
#
function rename () {
local from="$1"; shift
local to="$1"; shift
local n=0
local f
for f in "$@"
do
local new=`echo "$f" | sed -e "s$from$tog"`
# some problem with regexp: give up
test $? = 0 -a "$new" || break
if [ "$f" != "$new" ]
then
if [ -f "$new" ]
then
echo "file '$new' exists: skipped" >&2
else
echo mv "$f" "$new" && n=$(($n+1))
fi
fi
done
echo "renamed $n files" >&2
}
NOTE: The safety is 'on' here too. Change 'echo mv' to 'mv' if you want
to use it, but don't say I didn't warn you when it eats your homework
and kicks your dog.
NOTE ALSO: The sed command uses Ctrl-V as a separator character, just to
avoid having to quote the separator in the $from pattern. It may get
lost or mangled in the mail.
Add to your ~/.bashrc and season to taste.
<Joe
