Bash script to change file names recursively

Question

I have a script for changing file names of mht files but it does not traverse through dirs and sub dirs. I asked a question on a local forum and I got an answer that this is a solution:

find . -type f -name "*.mhtml" -o  -type f -name "*.mht" | xargs -I item sh -c '{ echo item; echo item | sed "s/[:?|]//g"; }' | xargs -n2 mv

But it generates an error. With some of my experimenting it turns out that sh -c breaks file names with space and that this generates an error. How can I fix this?

#!/bin/bash
# renames.sh
# basic file renamer
for i in  . *.mht
do
j=`echo $i | sed 's/|/ /g' | sed 's/:/ /g' | sed 's/?//g' | sed 's/"//g'`
    mv "$i" "$j"
    done

What if you tried this: find . -type f \( -name "*.mhtml" -o -name "*.mht" \) | xargs -I item sh -c '{ echo \"item\"; echo \"item\" | sed "s/[:?|]//g"; }' | xargs -n2 mv — lurker
– lurker, Commented May 25, 2013 at 18:43

nosid · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-26 10:50:21Z

2

#! /bin/bash
find . -type f \( -name "*.mhtml" -o -name ".mht" \) -print0 |
while IFS= read -r -d '' source; do
    target="${source//[:?|]/}"
    [ "X$source" != "X$target" ] &&
    mv -nv "$source" "$target"
done

Update: Do the rename according to the original question, and added support for .mht.

edited May 26, 2013 at 10:50

answered May 25, 2013 at 18:42

nosid

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1 Comment

lurker Over a year ago

It also doesn't handle .mht files

Lynch · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-26 07:23:57Z

1

Use rename. With rename you can specify a renaming pattern:

find . -type f \( -name "*.mhtml" -o -name "*.mht" \) -print0 | xargs -0 -I'{}' rename  's/[:?|]//g' "{}"

This way you can properly handle names with spaces. xargs will replace {} with every names of file provided by the find command. Also note the use of -print0 and -0. This use a \0 as a separator so its avoid problems dealing with filnames containing \n (newline).

The -o was not working the way it was intended to. you must use parenthesis to group conditions.

You may also consider using -iname instead of -name if you deal with file ending with ".mHtml".

edited May 26, 2013 at 7:23

answered May 26, 2013 at 7:17

Lynch

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1 Comment

Lynch Over a year ago

@user The secret is to test before posting! You know you can accept my answer if it solve your problem. Accepting an answer help the community, otherwise people spend time on your question to realise that there is already a valid solution.

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