Bash String manipulation when string contains parentheses

Question

I have a directory full of files with the name template

xxx[0-9][0-9][0-9[0-9]ss(wrx-mmm).zip

The zip files contain a file yrq000.dat and I don't want to overwrite them when the files are uncompressed.

I am creating a processing script but I want to name that common file a name associated with its source zip and I'm checking the method:

for f in $(ls xxx*)
do
  uniquename="${f%%(wrx.*zip}"
done

I can't figure out how to strip that opening parens from the string.

Is that possible with the bash string manipulation the way I am doing it? That is to say, it does not work. What do I need to add or remove so that it does work?

Answer 1

Try removing the dot from your pattern, i.e.:

for f in xxx*;
do
    uniquename="${f%%(wrx*zip}";
    echo "${uniquename}";
done

That takes files whose names are of the form xxx[0-9][0-9][0-9[0-9]ss(wrx-mmm).zip and converts them to strings of the form xxx[0-9][0-9][0-9[0-9]ss. Is that what you're trying to accomplish?