Renaming thousand files with similar names

.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;

I'm creating a bash script to rename my files. The files are in the same folder and all look something like this

1xxx_(bunch of characters)=(bunch of characters)=1234567890

Now what i want is to leave just the last 1234567890.
Basically deleting every character from the front to the second occurrence of =

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

1

Are you familiar with the $var##pattern parameter expansion construct?

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:10

I'm sad to say,but no,i'm not familiar

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:20

add a comment |

I'm creating a bash script to rename my files. The files are in the same folder and all look something like this

1xxx_(bunch of characters)=(bunch of characters)=1234567890

Now what i want is to leave just the last 1234567890.
Basically deleting every character from the front to the second occurrence of =

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

1

Are you familiar with the $var##pattern parameter expansion construct?

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:10

I'm sad to say,but no,i'm not familiar

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:20

add a comment |

I'm creating a bash script to rename my files. The files are in the same folder and all look something like this

1xxx_(bunch of characters)=(bunch of characters)=1234567890

Now what i want is to leave just the last 1234567890.
Basically deleting every character from the front to the second occurrence of =

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

I'm creating a bash script to rename my files. The files are in the same folder and all look something like this

1xxx_(bunch of characters)=(bunch of characters)=1234567890

Now what i want is to leave just the last 1234567890.
Basically deleting every character from the front to the second occurrence of =

bash shell files rename

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

edited Mar 9 at 14:14

Rui F Ribeiro

41.9k1483142

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

asked Dec 29 '15 at 22:05

OneStyle07

1

Are you familiar with the $var##pattern parameter expansion construct?

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:10

I'm sad to say,but no,i'm not familiar

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:20

add a comment |

1

Are you familiar with the $var##pattern parameter expansion construct?

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:10

I'm sad to say,but no,i'm not familiar

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:20

Are you familiar with the $var##pattern parameter expansion construct?

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:10

I'm sad to say,but no,i'm not familiar

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:20

add a comment |

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

You can use the shell's parameter expansion feature: in particular

$parameter#word
$parameter##word
 Remove matching prefix pattern. The word is expanded to produce
 a pattern just as in pathname expansion. If the pattern matches
 the beginning of the value of parameter, then the result of the
 expansion is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest
 matching pattern (the ``#'' case) or the longest matching pat‐
 tern (the ``##'' case) deleted.

So something like

for file in *; do echo mv -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

(remove the echo if it appears to do the right thing).

One issue you may face is that filenames may become non-unique once the prefixes are removed. You can either choose to skip renaming these cases using the -n or --no-clobber option to mv:

for file in *; do mv --no-clobber -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

or use the -b or --backup option to create distinct backups: most straightforwardly

for file in *; do mv --backup=numbered -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

which will add distinguishing suffixes .~1~, .~2~ and so on.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

|
show 1 more comment

The perl rename script (comes standard in debian/ubuntu, or available here: http://tips.webdesign10.com/files/rename.pl.txt ) will rename files based on a regular expression. with -n it will just print the named files without actually renaming them, allowing you to test before performing the action:

# Check before renaming...
$ rename -n 's/^.*=//' *
1xxx_DSAFDSAFDSFA=FDAFDSAFDSAFSDA=12341243142 renamed as 12341243142

# now rename all files
$ rename 's/^.*=//' *

It is very flexible tool, as it can easily operate on files based on wildcards (e.g. * for all files or *.txt for all text files), and it accepts any perl regular expression.

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

add a comment |

awk can save the day here too. I'm using cp there, change it to mv if you like:

ls | awk -F"=" 'system("cp -i "$0" "$3)'

I would use -i as a cp parameter too, just to be safe.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

add a comment |

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3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

You can use the shell's parameter expansion feature: in particular

$parameter#word
$parameter##word
 Remove matching prefix pattern. The word is expanded to produce
 a pattern just as in pathname expansion. If the pattern matches
 the beginning of the value of parameter, then the result of the
 expansion is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest
 matching pattern (the ``#'' case) or the longest matching pat‐
 tern (the ``##'' case) deleted.

So something like

for file in *; do echo mv -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

(remove the echo if it appears to do the right thing).

One issue you may face is that filenames may become non-unique once the prefixes are removed. You can either choose to skip renaming these cases using the -n or --no-clobber option to mv:

for file in *; do mv --no-clobber -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

or use the -b or --backup option to create distinct backups: most straightforwardly

for file in *; do mv --backup=numbered -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

which will add distinguishing suffixes .~1~, .~2~ and so on.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

|
show 1 more comment

You can use the shell's parameter expansion feature: in particular

$parameter#word
$parameter##word
 Remove matching prefix pattern. The word is expanded to produce
 a pattern just as in pathname expansion. If the pattern matches
 the beginning of the value of parameter, then the result of the
 expansion is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest
 matching pattern (the ``#'' case) or the longest matching pat‐
 tern (the ``##'' case) deleted.

So something like

for file in *; do echo mv -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

(remove the echo if it appears to do the right thing).

One issue you may face is that filenames may become non-unique once the prefixes are removed. You can either choose to skip renaming these cases using the -n or --no-clobber option to mv:

for file in *; do mv --no-clobber -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

or use the -b or --backup option to create distinct backups: most straightforwardly

for file in *; do mv --backup=numbered -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

which will add distinguishing suffixes .~1~, .~2~ and so on.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

|
show 1 more comment

You can use the shell's parameter expansion feature: in particular

$parameter#word
$parameter##word
 Remove matching prefix pattern. The word is expanded to produce
 a pattern just as in pathname expansion. If the pattern matches
 the beginning of the value of parameter, then the result of the
 expansion is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest
 matching pattern (the ``#'' case) or the longest matching pat‐
 tern (the ``##'' case) deleted.

So something like

for file in *; do echo mv -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

(remove the echo if it appears to do the right thing).

One issue you may face is that filenames may become non-unique once the prefixes are removed. You can either choose to skip renaming these cases using the -n or --no-clobber option to mv:

for file in *; do mv --no-clobber -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

or use the -b or --backup option to create distinct backups: most straightforwardly

for file in *; do mv --backup=numbered -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

which will add distinguishing suffixes .~1~, .~2~ and so on.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

You can use the shell's parameter expansion feature: in particular

$parameter#word
$parameter##word
 Remove matching prefix pattern. The word is expanded to produce
 a pattern just as in pathname expansion. If the pattern matches
 the beginning of the value of parameter, then the result of the
 expansion is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest
 matching pattern (the ``#'' case) or the longest matching pat‐
 tern (the ``##'' case) deleted.

So something like

for file in *; do echo mv -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

(remove the echo if it appears to do the right thing).

One issue you may face is that filenames may become non-unique once the prefixes are removed. You can either choose to skip renaming these cases using the -n or --no-clobber option to mv:

for file in *; do mv --no-clobber -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

or use the -b or --backup option to create distinct backups: most straightforwardly

for file in *; do mv --backup=numbered -- "$file" "$file##*="; done

which will add distinguishing suffixes .~1~, .~2~ and so on.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

edited Dec 29 '15 at 23:22

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:31

steeldriver

37.7k45389

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

|
show 1 more comment

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

As you stated it works great,but now i figured out i have couple of hundreds files with the same characters,like 1393514394 so the second occurrence is not renamed,any way to add "a" like 1393514394a ,1393514394 b etc for the duplicate files ?

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:43

@OneStyle07 look at the -b or --backup options of the mv command: for example, adding --backup=numbered will add default suffixes like .~1~, .~2~

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 22:51

What that -- is doing in the mv command of your answer?

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:56

@Kira the -- is a (more-or-less) standard way to denote the end of command options: it just makes commands like this safe in the case that there are filenames beginning with a hyphen (in this case there wouldn't be, given the 1xxx* glob).

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:03

@OneStyle07 please see edits

– steeldriver
Dec 29 '15 at 23:23

|
show 1 more comment

# Check before renaming...
$ rename -n 's/^.*=//' *
1xxx_DSAFDSAFDSFA=FDAFDSAFDSAFSDA=12341243142 renamed as 12341243142

# now rename all files
$ rename 's/^.*=//' *

It is very flexible tool, as it can easily operate on files based on wildcards (e.g. * for all files or *.txt for all text files), and it accepts any perl regular expression.

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

add a comment |

# Check before renaming...
$ rename -n 's/^.*=//' *
1xxx_DSAFDSAFDSFA=FDAFDSAFDSAFSDA=12341243142 renamed as 12341243142

# now rename all files
$ rename 's/^.*=//' *

It is very flexible tool, as it can easily operate on files based on wildcards (e.g. * for all files or *.txt for all text files), and it accepts any perl regular expression.

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

add a comment |

# Check before renaming...
$ rename -n 's/^.*=//' *
1xxx_DSAFDSAFDSFA=FDAFDSAFDSAFSDA=12341243142 renamed as 12341243142

# now rename all files
$ rename 's/^.*=//' *

It is very flexible tool, as it can easily operate on files based on wildcards (e.g. * for all files or *.txt for all text files), and it accepts any perl regular expression.

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

# Check before renaming...
$ rename -n 's/^.*=//' *
1xxx_DSAFDSAFDSFA=FDAFDSAFDSAFSDA=12341243142 renamed as 12341243142

# now rename all files
$ rename 's/^.*=//' *

It is very flexible tool, as it can easily operate on files based on wildcards (e.g. * for all files or *.txt for all text files), and it accepts any perl regular expression.

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

answered Dec 30 '15 at 20:06

A. Gordon

44924

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

add a comment |

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

It is sed for file name: sed does file content, rename does their names.

– ctrl-alt-delor
Dec 30 '15 at 21:32

add a comment |

awk can save the day here too. I'm using cp there, change it to mv if you like:

ls | awk -F"=" 'system("cp -i "$0" "$3)'

I would use -i as a cp parameter too, just to be safe.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

add a comment |

awk can save the day here too. I'm using cp there, change it to mv if you like:

ls | awk -F"=" 'system("cp -i "$0" "$3)'

I would use -i as a cp parameter too, just to be safe.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

add a comment |

awk can save the day here too. I'm using cp there, change it to mv if you like:

ls | awk -F"=" 'system("cp -i "$0" "$3)'

I would use -i as a cp parameter too, just to be safe.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

awk can save the day here too. I'm using cp there, change it to mv if you like:

ls | awk -F"=" 'system("cp -i "$0" "$3)'

I would use -i as a cp parameter too, just to be safe.

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

edited Dec 29 '15 at 22:32

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

answered Dec 29 '15 at 22:24

Kira

3,222925

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

add a comment |

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

I get sh: 1402190714: command not found usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

– OneStyle07
Dec 29 '15 at 22:29

Did you try to add parameters to mv? Make use to put it inside the quotes and to put spaces around it. I've edited the answer to show that.

– Kira
Dec 29 '15 at 22:30

add a comment |

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