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)?

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-11 23:41:35Z

13

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.

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answered Jan 11, 2012 at 17:26

Alexios

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Birei · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-11 15:29:14Z

11

This could be one way:

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

answered Jan 11, 2012 at 15:17

Birei

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you might want to add -n or --no-clobber to mv if there's any chance that one of the mp4's might have the same name. Doesn't seem likely, but it costs nothing.
– bsd
Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 15:25

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daniel kullmann · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-11 18:58:16Z

5

There is also mmv:

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

Remove the "-n" when output looks right.

answered Jan 11, 2012 at 18:58

daniel kullmann

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