I have many files of the form
sw001
sw002
sw003
...
I want to insert a period between the sw's and the number values. How can I accomplish this?
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3 Answers
If you don't have rename and don't feel like downloading it, use this:
for file in sw*; do
mv "$file" "${file/sw/sw.}"
done
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Be aware that the pattern substitution
${file/sw/sw.}"also matches files likeFOOsw001. Besides - this kind of substitution is not supported by all shells. Removing a prefix pattern should be more appropriate and portable:"$sw.{file#sw}"Mar 2, 2012 at 19:16 -
2@maxschlepzig I suppose it would, but because of the glob all names it encounters necessarily begin with
sw. Good to point out in general though.– KevinMar 2, 2012 at 19:20
On Linux:
rename 'sw' 'sw.' sw*
On Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives, use rename.ul instead of rename (rename is a different file renaming command on those distributions).
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I edited my comment - apparently there is a second utility by the name
renameout there. Which is awesome. I linked to the wrong manual page, but didn't notice because they are close enough... Mar 2, 2012 at 18:19 -
Gotcha. It's interesting that you say the perl rename is usually the default -- I've never run into it before at all. As you say, the rename I'm familiar with should be on most linux boxen, shipping with util-linux.– rsawMar 2, 2012 at 18:47
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If you can can express the transformation as a Perl regular expression, rename that ships with Perl is a great choice. It applies a Perl expression to each filename, then changes the name if it is different. Often, a Perl regular expression substitution is what you want:
rename 's/sw/sw./' sw*
This is different from the rename(1) that ships with util-linux-ng, but normally the Perl version is the default. See man 1 rename to check which one your system has.
answered Mar 2, 2012 at 18:07
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Hopefully that edit is clearer: the man page was for a different utility with the same name, and I didn't notice because it was close enough. The Perl rename applies a Perl expression; 's///' is a regular expression substitution. Mar 2, 2012 at 18:18
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1If this
renameexpression is indeed a regular expression, the.character would mean "any one character", so it should be escaped in order to be taken literally.– user13742Mar 2, 2012 at 18:45 -
1@hesse, it would in the match part, not in the replacement part. :) Mar 2, 2012 at 19:05
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The Perl version is the default in Debian and derivatives including Ubuntu. It's not shipped by other distributions. Mar 2, 2012 at 23:01