CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashrename
Debug255
Debug255

Reputation: 335

Bash script to rename file extension

#!/bin/bash

if [[ "$#" -lt 3 ]]; then
    echo "USAGE: enter the following arguments:
    1st argument = starting directory path (e.g. . for working directory)
    2nd argument = old file extension (e.g. txt)
    3rd argument = new file extension (e.g. html 
    Note:  Do not enter any . or \. for the 2nd and 3rd arguments
    "
else 
    find "$1" -name *."$2"* -exec rename 's/\."${2}"$/."${3}"/' '{}' \;
fi

Example input:

bash rename_file_extensions.sh . txt html

Example output:

Use of uninitialized value $2 in regexp compilation at (eval 6) line 1.

line 1 contains the if statement above. Argument $2 is txt. So, I am confused as to what it is referring to.

I can run the following line and it works perfectly, but I want to have it accept bash arguments:

find . -name "*.txt.html*" -exec rename 's/\.txt.html.html.html$/.html/' '{}' \;

In this case, as you can see, there were a lot of incorrect file extensions. This line corrected all of them.

I tried editing the find line to:

find "${1}" -name '*."$2"*' -exec rename 's/\."${2}"$/."${3}"/' '{}' \;

This allowed me to move forward without an error; however, there was no output, and it did not change any txt extensions to html when I ran the following command, bash rename_file_extensions.sh . txt html.

Please help!

Thank you!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 492

Answers (1)

Jean-François Fabre
Jean-François Fabre

Reputation: 140148

to get arguments interpreted by the shell, drop the single quotes:

try

find "$1" -name "*.$2*" -exec rename "s/\.${2}\$/.${3}/" '{}' \;

or (if you want to keep quotes)

find "$1" -name "*.$2*" -exec rename 's/\.'"${2}"'$/.'"${3}"'/' '{}' \;

(and I would enclose the full argument of -name in double quotes or bash could expand the argument directly if some files match in the current directory)

Upvotes: 1

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