CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbashdirectoryfilenames
user2158381
user2158381

Reputation: 13

Create directories from filenames with multiple words

I have several files in one directory in Linux that look like:

John Smith-data.txt
Peter Walker-address.txt
...

I want a script that reads these filenames and creates one directory for each name in the filename, that is

John Smith
Peter Walker

If I do

for name in `ls | awk -F - '{print $1}'`; do mkdir $name; done

the following directories are created

John
Smith
Peter
Walker

by doing 

for name in `ls | awk -F - '{print $1}'`; do mkdir "$name"; done

I get the same result

Then, doing

for name in "`ls | awk -F - '{print $1}'"`; do mkdir "$name"; done

creeates only one dir named:

John Smith Peter Walker

Finaly, if I enter

for name in "`ls | awk -F - '{print $1}'"`; do mkdir $name; done

again I get

John
Smith
Peter
Walker

Any ideas ? How to use the quotes "" ?

Thanks in advance

Xavier

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1556

Answers (1)

William Pursell
William Pursell

Reputation: 212238

It's not entirely clear what you want, but perhaps:

for i in *.txt; do mkdir "${i%-*}"; done

Upvotes: 4

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