bash script for renaming files

[easoukenka]

Hello I got lots of media files and would like to be able to easily rename them. I use midnight commander but it takes too long to specify current directory as it defaults to moving the file while renaming.
So I decided to try to create a bash script that could do this. I am hoping to achieve this
filename1.avi

renamescript filename1.avi newfilename1 (i would get first filename by doing alt+enter in midnight commander so script would have to support like / spacing etc.

I would like it to preserve the file extension without having to retype it.

I have been trying but am very new to bash scripting so I am too embarassed to put what I have here. i know i could just do mv filename1.avi filename2.avi but i am just wanting to make this quicker and prevent errors.

Thank you for any input on this hope it's in the right section.

[Rog131]

Re: bash script for renaming files

Maybe these help:

> Topic: Moving/Renaming Music Files
> Topic: How Do You Rename Multiple Files Using Console?
> Topic: Rename Multiple Files


Afterthought

I'm not sure how the midnight commander works but with the Konqueror/Dolphin/Krusader you can use Krename.

man krename

DESCRIPTION
KRename is a batch file renamer which can rename a list of files based
on a set of expressions.

[easoukenka]

Re: bash script for renaming files

Thank you for the links. I read those and have googled this but can't seem to find exactly what I am looking for.

Want a bash script for learning and I enjoy the konsole. I am hoping to just as said have a script where I could type like
myrenamescript filename1.avi newfilename1
result would be newfilename1.avi

right now mv filename1.avi newfilename1.avi works of course but hoping to shorten it and I will improve on it myself as needed I enjoy learning bash scripting. I am hoping to be able to put spaces in there without any \ or anything too.

Thanks this is of course not a big problem but I appreciate any help.

[Rog131]

Re: bash script for renaming files

Maybe this example helps:


Making text file RE

RE:

#!/bin/sh

extension="${1##*.}" 
mv "$1" "$2.$extension"

Right clicking RE (Dolphin/Konqueror) > Properties > Permissions > is executable

Dropping it in to the /usr/bin/

Check:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/RE

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 58 2008-06-22 22:51 /usr/bin/RE

Test

Before:

$ ls -l "/media/sda6/tmp_rename/Something with spaces.jpg"

-rw-r--r-- 1 rog rog 74668 2008-06-12 22:44 /media/sda6/tmp_rename/Something with spaces.jpg

Using RE:

$ RE "Something with spaces.jpg" "Something else with spaces"

After:

$ ls -l "/media/sda6/tmp_rename/Something else with spaces.jpg"

-rw-r--r-- 1 rog rog 74668 2008-06-12 22:44 /media/sda6/tmp_rename/Something else with spaces.jpg

Links
> Howto read command line arguments in a bash script
> Bash script help - rename script

[easoukenka]

Re: bash script for renaming files

Great that little script got me going thank you so much. I modified it a little to my liking this works great. I know there is much more efficient ways of doing it but it works! Now in midnight commander I can just highlight the file I want to rename like this
(alt+enter puts the filename with special characters to make it one string)
scriptname (alt+enter) this is my new file

No quotes or nothing thanks maybe someone wants to improve on this or use it feel free.

#!/bin/sh
extension="${1##*.}"
if [ -n "$8" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$7" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$6" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3 $4 $5 $6.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$5" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3 $4 $5.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$4" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3 $4.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$3" ]
then mv "$1" "$2 $3.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi
if [ -n "$2" ]
then mv "$1" "$2.$extension"
exit 1
else echo "success"
fi