Batch renaming files with pattern

Question

I have some files named like these:

63018933.mp4?token=1325697436_b0c3e70c6e339380b4a484c576a8c287

63808488.mp4?token=1325697401_4ae5f7a68d93873c8881b303e7655e14

How do I rename all them to, for example 63018933.mp4(remove characters after mp4)?

Answer 1

This could be one way:

for file in *.mp4\?token*; do mv --no-clobber "$file" "${file%%\?*}"; done

Answer 2

If you have the rename(1) tool (which you do if you have Debian or a Debian-based Linux, including Ubuntu and derivatives):

rename -n 's/\.mp4.*$/.mp4/' *mp4*

Once you're convinced you have the right pattern, just remove the -n (dry-run) and let it run properly.

rename(1) will apply a Perl regular expression to the filenames given it.

Note that on most other Linux distributions, rename is a different file renaming program, which doesn't help for this particular renaming pattern.

Answer 3

There is also mmv:

mmv -n "*.mp4*" "#1.mp4"

Remove the "-n" when output looks right.