Can anyone help out with this simple command?

Calinerti · Nov 12, 2008, 12:39 AM

Hi,

Im trying to rename multiple files, using CentOS (fedora). I'm running the following command:

find -iname .new-account | mv .new-account .new-user

to change all files named .new-account to .new-user

I keep getting "cannot stat .new-account: no such file or directory".

But using just "find -iname .new-account" lists all the files I want changed. Im stuck! I also tried find -iname .new-account | rename 's/\.new-account/\.new-user/' but that doesnt work either (but it works in ubuntu), no error message given.

Id appreciate any and all input you have! (and yeah, I AM a n00b at linux!)

merry · Nov 17, 2008, 02:42 PM

Quote:

find -iname .new-account | mv .new-account .new-user

I'm not sure you can pipe anything to mv; not like this, anyway. This command will find (case-insensitive) all files named .new-account in the current directory and below, then proceed to rename the one in the current dir to .new-user (no output from find reaches mv). 'cannot stat [...]' means there is no .new-account file in the current directory.

I don't use ubuntu; the rename command appears to be ubuntu-specific.

I tried the line below on a Mac/bash, but should work mostly anywhere.

This will find all files named .new-account starting from the current dir downwards; get the path using sed to remove the filename from the path (thus creating a list of paths that are stored successively in $i); cd there and rename the file; cd back and continue to the next file:

Code:

for i in `find . -name .new-account | sed -e "s/\/\.new-account$//"`; do cd $i; mv .new-account .new-user; cd -; done

Note that the dot (and preceding slash) must be escaped in the sed regexp, i.e.

Code:

\/\.new-account$

The dollar sign is necessary to force sed to match the filename in a path like

Code:

./path/to/.new-accounts/.new-account

I'm not sure why you want to use -iname? If your files do not have identical names, (some are called .new-account, but some are .New-Account') the above will not work, you need to repeat the line above with each filename version in turn.

[edit]

Here's a better way:

http://snipplr.com/view/2736/rename-...r-expressions/

For your needs, the one-liner in the post above should be modified to:

Code:

for i in `find . -name .new-account`; do j=`echo $i | sed 's/account$/user/'`; mv "$i" "$j"; done

This is more elegant, as it doesn't cd, but renames using the full path, i.e.

Code:

mv /path/to/old /path/to/new

The syntax for sed might differ by unix/shell, so check it first.

Also, 'rename' appears to be a perl script available on Debian:

http://tips.webdesign10.com/files/rename.pl.txt

Malus · Nov 27, 2008, 06:23 PM

Seems like you are making it too complicated to me. Here is a snippet that works for me on FreeBSD:

Code:

find . -iname .new-account | sed 's/\.new-account$//' | xargs -n1 -I % mv %.new-account %.new-user

It could probably be made even simpler, but I think it is a good start.

ET3D · Nov 27, 2008, 07:02 PM

It was all much simpler on the Amiga...

Nov 12, 2008, 12:39 AM	#1
Calinerti DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Elysium Posts: 330 Rep Power: 0	Can anyone help out with this simple command? Hi, Im trying to rename multiple files, using CentOS (fedora). I'm running the following command: find -iname .new-account \| mv .new-account .new-user to change all files named .new-account to .new-user I keep getting "cannot stat .new-account: no such file or directory". But using just "find -iname .new-account" lists all the files I want changed. Im stuck! I also tried find -iname .new-account \| rename 's/\.new-account/\.new-user/' but that doesnt work either (but it works in ubuntu), no error message given. Id appreciate any and all input you have! (and yeah, I AM a n00b at linux!)

Nov 27, 2008, 06:23 PM	#3
Malus BSD SMASH! Join Date: May 2002 Location: A rabbit hole. . . Posts: 1,170 Rep Power: 0	Re: Can anyone help out with this simple command? Seems like you are making it too complicated to me. Here is a snippet that works for me on FreeBSD: Code: find . -iname .new-account \| sed 's/\.new-account$//' \| xargs -n1 -I % mv %.new-account %.new-user It could probably be made even simpler, but I think it is a good start. __________________ quad (FreeBSD/amd64 8-CURRENT): Intel Q6600 - Asus P5E-VM HDMI - 2x2 GB Kingston PC6400 DDR2 Ram - Seagate 320GB 7200RPM HD - 2xSeagate 1TB 7200RPM HD in RAID 1 via ZFS - Lite-On 20x DVD Multi Recorder - Coolermaster Centurion 5 router (FreeBSD/amd64 8-CURRENT): Intel E4500 - Intel D945GCNL - 2 GB PC6400 Mushkin Ram - Lite-On 48x24x48x16 - Seagate 320GB 7200RPM HD - Silverstone SST-SG02-F wanderer (FreeBSD/i386 7-CURRENT): Lenovo Thinkpad T61p mini (OS X 10.5): Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.8Ghz, 4 GB Mushkin PC5400 Ram - Headroom MicroDAC Portable sound: Rockboxed iPod Video -> Westone UM2's Not-So-Portable Sound: Headroon MicroDAC -> Singlepower PPX3-SLAM -> Grado RS-1's or Beyerdynamic DT-880's Very-Not-Portable-Sound: Squeezebox v3 -> Denon AVR-1507 -> B&W 683's & Sunfire HRS-10 Last edited by Malus; Nov 27, 2008 at 06:32 PM.

Nov 27, 2008, 07:02 PM	#4
ET3D Hopeless Dreamer Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Dreamland, near the pool of infinite graphics cards Posts: 3,055 Rep Power: 103 System Specs	Re: Can anyone help out with this simple command? It was all much simpler on the Amiga...