CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexrename
oscar231
oscar231

Reputation: 43

Using rename and grep patterns to rename files in Terminal

I am trying to change the name of a number of files in a directory using rename, but the pattern that I'm using is not working with rename, even though it works in my text editor (BBEdit). I would like to know how to modify the rename command I'm using or the pattern so that I can get rid of the long prefix that each file has.

My directory listing looks like this:

bos012_attempt_2018-02-15-01-52-18_KIC Document 0001.pdf
gem512_attempt_2018-02-14-20-30-11_Geo HW 2.pdf
kgs252_attempt_2018-02-14-23-35-03_kgs252_hw2.pdf
nrs728_attempt_2018-02-15-10-04-42_mids.png
oko018_attempt_2018-02-15-23-57-57_Hw2.pdf

I want to change this to

KIC Document 0001.pdf
Geo HW 2.pdf
kgs252_hw2.pdf
mids.png
Hw2.pdf

Using rename -vs 's/\D\D\D\d\d\d_attempt_2018-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d_/''/g' * produces no changes in the names. Nevertheless, changing the pattern \D\D\D\d\d\d_attempt_2018-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d_ to no character works just fine in my text editor. I've tried different things, e.g.

rename -vs \D\D\D\d\d\d_attempt_2018-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d_ '' *

and nothing.

mydir $ rename -nvs \D\D\D\d\d\d_attempt_2018-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d-\d\d_ '' *

returns

Using expression: sub { use feature ':5.18';
s/\Q${\"DDDddd_attempt_2018\-dd\-dd\-dd\-dd\-dd_"}// }
'bos012_attempt_2018-02-15-01-52-18_KIC_Document_0001.pdf' unchanged
'gem512_attempt_2018-02-14-20-30-11_Geo_HW_2.pdf' unchanged
'nrs728_attempt_2018-02-15-10-04-42_mids.png' unchanged
'oko018_attempt_2018-02-15-23-57-57_Hw2.pdf' unchanged

Upvotes: 1

Views: 598

Answers (1)

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785481

Depending on your version of rename, you may use this rename command:

rename -n 's/.*_attempt_\d{4}(-\d{2}){5}_//' *.{pdf,png}


'bos012_attempt_2018-02-15-01-52-18_KIC Document 0001.pdf' would be renamed to 'KIC Document 0001.pdf'
'gem512_attempt_2018-02-14-20-30-11_Geo HW 2.pdf' would be renamed to 'Geo HW 2.pdf'
'kgs252_attempt_2018-02-14-23-35-03_kgs252_hw2.pdf' would be renamed to 'kgs252_hw2.pdf'
'oko018_attempt_2018-02-15-23-57-57_Hw2.pdf' would be renamed to 'Hw2.pdf'
'nrs728_attempt_2018-02-15-10-04-42_mids.png' would be renamed to 'mids.png'

If you are satisfied with the output remove -n argument of dry-run.

Upvotes: 1

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