Batch rename according to number of pages in pdf file

Question

I have a lot of papers in pdf files (and also other type of files in the same folder). I'd like to rename them using the pattern

<current file name>[<number of pages>].pdf

But after some tries I got a lot of wrong file names with duplicated number of pages at the end. For example,

Madsen - Categorical[48][48].pdf

So, I'd like to:

1. Clean all file names removing (if) any occurrence of numbers in brackets at the end. For example, the file above should be renamed to

Madsen - Categorical.pdf

2. Rename all files just inserting [<number of pages>] at the end.

The [<number of pages>] should be read from the pdf file since I don't have this information.

Answer 1

Here's one simple way, that addresses your original question completely. Could be done as a one-liner, but this syntax keeps it readable.

#!/bin/bash
for F in "$@"
do
echo mv "$F" "${F%.pdf}[$(pdfinfo "$F" | awk '/^Pages/{print $NF}')].pdf"
done

$ ls *pdf
aosa-bash.pdf  article.pdf  bash.pdf  bashref.pdf  rose94.pdf
$ find . -name \*.pdf -exec ./pdf.sh {} +
mv ./article.pdf ./article[11].pdf
mv ./bashref.pdf ./bashref[172].pdf
mv ./bash.pdf ./bash[75].pdf
mv ./aosa-bash.pdf ./aosa-bash[14].pdf
mv ./rose94.pdf ./rose94[13].pdf
$

If happy with the proposed renames, either paste all the mv commands into a shell window or revise the script, replacing the echo mv with simply mv.

Answer 2

So, here are two scripts, which you can put in a folder with the pdf-files needing to be renamed.

The first one is for adding page numbers and the second is for deleting them. Both scripts are interactive

• Type abort Enter to exit the script,
• type n Enter to enter interactive file-by-file mode
• and if you want a script to proceed with all pdfs without confirmation type y Enter y Enter.

The script to add number of pages in file.pdf (file.pdf -> file[N].pdf)

#!/bin/bash

IFS='
'
ret="not_ok";

renameinteractively () {
for file in *.pdf ; do 
  # derive number of pages in a pdf document
    npages=`pdfinfo $file | grep Pages | awk -e '{print $2}'`;
  # make up a new filename
    file2=${file%%.pdf}[$npages].pdf;
  # an auxiliary variable
    ret="not_ok";

  # interactive part. Ask to rename or not.
    printf "Rename\n $file to \n $file2 ? (y/n/abort) \n";
    until [ $ret == 'ok' ]; do
  # read your answer and y-for rename, n-skip and abort-to exit
      read ans;
      if [ $ans == "y" ]
      then 
          mv $file $file2;
          ret="ok";
          continue;
      elif [ $ans == "n" ]
      then 
          ret="ok";
          break;
      elif [ $ans == "abort" ]
      then 
          exit;
      else
          printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
      fi
      done;
  done ;
}

renameallofthem () {
until [ $ret == 'ok' ]; do
      if [ $a == "y" ]
      then 
    for file in *.pdf ; do 
      npages=`pdfinfo $file | grep Pages | awk -e '{print $2}'`;
      mv $file ${file%%.pdf}[$npages].pdf; 
      printf "\nMoved \n"
      echo $file
      printf "to\n"
      echo ${file%%.pdf}[$npages].pdf
    done ;
    ret="ok";
    exit;
      elif [ $a == "n" ]
      then 
    printf "\n\n OK, let's do it interactively!\n\n"
    renameinteractively;
      elif [ $a == "abort" ]
      then 
    exit;
      else
    printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
      fi;
done;
}

printf "Rename ALL of the .pdf files in current folder? (y/n/abort) \n"
read a
if [ $a == "y" ]
then
      printf "Really??\n\n Do we rename ALL of them? (y/n/abort) \n"
      read a
      renameallofthem;
elif [ $a == "n" ]
then 
  printf "\n\n OK, let's do it interactively!!\n\n"
  renameinteractively;
elif [ $a == "abort" ]
then 
    exit;
else
    printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
fi

The script to remove number of pages from file[N][N]....[N].pdf (file[N][N]....[N].pdf -> file.pdf)

#!/bin/bash

IFS='
'
deleteNumbersInteractively () {
for file in `ls *].pdf | grep '\[[0-9]*\]'` ; do 
# an auxiliary variable
  ret="not_ok";
# make up a new filename
  file2=`echo $file | sed -e 's/\[[0-9]\+\]//g' `;
# interactive part. Ask to rename or not.    
  printf "Rename\n $file to \n $file2 ? (y/n/abort) \n";
  until [ $ret == 'ok' ]; do
      read ans;
      if [ $ans == "y" ]
      then 
      mv $file $file2;
      ret="ok";
      continue;
      elif [ $ans == "n" ]
      then 
      ret="ok";
      continue;
      elif [ $ans == "abort" ]
      then 
      exit;
      else
      printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
      fi
  done;
done;
}
deleteAllTheNumbers () {
until [ $ret == 'ok' ]; do
      if [ $a == "y" ]
      then 
    for file in *.pdf ; do 
      file2=`echo $file | sed -e 's/\[[0-9]\+\]//g' `;
      mv $file $file2; 
      printf "\nMoved \n"
      echo $file
      printf "to\n"
      echo $file2
    done ;
    ret="ok";
    exit;
      elif [ $a == "n" ]
      then 
    printf "\n\n OK, let's do it interactively!\n\n"
    deleteNumbersInteractively;
      elif [ $a == "abort" ]
      then 
    exit;
      else
    printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
      fi;
done;
}


printf "Delete ALL of the filename[NUMBERS].pdf from files in current folder? (y/n/abort) \n"
read a
if [ $a == "y" ]
then
      printf "Really??\n\n Do we rename ALL of them? (y/n/abort) \n"
      read a
      deleteAllTheNumbers;
elif [ $a == "n" ]
then 
  printf "\n\n OK, let's do it interactively!!\n\n"
  deleteNumbersInteractively;
elif [ $a == "abort" ]
then 
    exit;
else
    printf "Enter 'y', 'n' or 'abort', please! \n\n";
fi

Is everything ok now?