4

I have a directory full of files foo_num.txt. I'd like to rename all to num.txt (that is delete the "foo_" part). Can I do this in one line?

Ditte
  • 329

2 Answers2

5

If you don't want to bother with for-loops in Bash, you might want to use the rename program:

rename "s/foo_//" *.txt

The first argument is the Perl expression defining the string replacement rule. In this case: [s]ubstitute "foo_" with "".

The second argument filters the files you want to rename.

Falko
  • 241
  • 2
  • 10
1

As your first part is separated by a _ I suggest you

rename 's/.*?_//' *.txt

The ? means not greedy, therefore only the first occurrence of _ will be replaced.

Example

$ ls -laog
total 4280
drwxrwxr-x  2 4329472 Aug 10 13:05 .
drwx------ 55   20480 Aug 10 12:54 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 foo_1_1.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 foo_2_2.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 foo_3_3.txt

$ rename 's/.*?_//' *.txt

$ ls -laog
total 4280
drwxrwxr-x  2 4329472 Aug 10 13:06 .
drwx------ 55   20480 Aug 10 12:54 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 1_1.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 2_2.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:05 3_3.txt

To replace all occurrences use

rename 's/.*_//' *.txt

Example

$ ls -laog
total 4280
drwxrwxr-x  2 4329472 Aug 10 13:08 .
drwx------ 55   20480 Aug 10 12:54 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 foo_1_1.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 foo_2_2.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 foo_3_3.txt

$ rename 's/.*_//' *.txt

$ ls -laog
total 4280
drwxrwxr-x  2 4329472 Aug 10 13:09 .
drwx------ 55   20480 Aug 10 12:54 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 1.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 2.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1       0 Aug 10 13:08 3.txt
A.B.
  • 92,125