how to replace a character in a set of file names?

Question

I have a set of image like that :

01-12_13:20:12_1366x768.png  01-12_13:20:46_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:01_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:06_1366x768.png
01-12_13:20:40_1366x768.png  01-12_13:20:47_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:02_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:07_1366x768.png
01-12_13:20:42_1366x768.png  01-12_13:20:49_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:03_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:08_1366x768.png
01-12_13:20:44_1366x768.png  01-12_13:20:59_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:04_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:10_1366x768.png
01-12_13:20:45_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:00_1366x768.png  01-12_13:21:05_1366x768.png

I need to replace every : to _. How can I do that using bash commands ?

(note : i love when everything is compact and one-lined)

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 12 '17 at 15:58

11

You can use a simple for loop, glob and parameter expansion to achieve this:

for f in *:*.png; do mv -- "$f" "${f//:/_}"; done

edited Jan 12 '17 at 15:58

Stéphane Chazelas

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answered Jan 12 '17 at 13:06

nuviktor

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score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '17 at 13:06

6

The for loop is one possible solution but i prefer rename.

rename "s/:/_/g" *

This tool renames multiple files according to the regex rule which is given.

answered Jan 12 '17 at 13:06

Christian Meißner

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i tried but didn't work for me – vdegenne Jan 12 '17 at 13:17
Whats the problem. Is there an error message? – Christian Meißner Jan 12 '17 at 13:18
no error message, and the file are still containing the `:`. tried in `su` and changing the quote to single but still can't run that command – vdegenne Jan 12 '17 at 13:19
Strange. I tested it here before i post. And this is one of my all time favorite commands. What OS you are using? – Christian Meißner Jan 12 '17 at 13:21
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I had to write `rename : _ *.png`, and my `man rename` doesn't seem to accept the syntax you provided, what distro are you using ? – vdegenne Jan 12 '17 at 13:25
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS – Christian Meißner Jan 12 '17 at 13:26
i use fedora 24 maybe the rename installed package is different, thanks anyways, led me on the right path – vdegenne Jan 12 '17 at 13:29
`rename` is not portable, it exists in different forms in different distributions. Maybe this [post](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/238856/find-all-filename-mp4-and-rename-filename-audio/238862#238862) is useful. – andreatsh Jan 12 '17 at 14:11
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sometimes under the name of `prename`. – JJoao Jan 12 '17 at 14:33
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There are several tools with the name `rename`. The one we are discussing here is written by Larry Wall, in the language perl. – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 12 '17 at 15:36
@ballangddang you don't need root's capabilities to rename a file. So don't do it. – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 12 '17 at 15:36
@richard don't do what ? – vdegenne Jan 12 '17 at 18:17
@ballangddang use root's capabilities when renaming files. If the file is in a directory that you have write permission on, then you can rename it. If you switch to root every time that you don't know what you are doing, then it will not be long before you break your system. – ctrl-alt-delor Jan 13 '17 at 12:07
How to achieve the same with mmv ? – ychaouche Feb 16 '21 at 10:11

how to replace a character in a set of file names?

2 Answers2