Replace string in filename in bash

Question

So I have this function

ren_barrow(){
    for file in *.clu
    do
        mv -f $file ${file//RELEASE/"$1"}
    done
}

but when I run this, as you can see everyfile that ends in .clu will be renamed.

I want to put an if statement around the mv that says if the filename contains RELEASE in it then carry on. If I do not have this if statement I get errors saying

Cannot rename: $file and $file is the same file.

ren_barrow(){
    for file in *.clu
    do
        # if $file grep "RELEASE"; then
            mv -f $file ${file//RELEASE/"$1"}
        # fi
    done
}

gniourf_gniourf · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-27 15:00:05Z

4

You can have your mv command like this:

[[ "$file" != *"RELEASE"* ]] && mv -f "$file" "${file//RELEASE/$1}"

edited Jun 27, 2014 at 15:00

gniourf_gniourf

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answered Jun 27, 2014 at 14:54

anubhava

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3 Comments

Dobz Over a year ago

Thank you, would you mind explaining how this statement works?

anubhava Over a year ago

This condition [[ "$file" != *"RELEASE"* ]] is using a glob pattern to determine whether $filename doesn't already contain text RELEASE in it.

anubhava Over a year ago

Also see guide on BASH Globbing

dogbane · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-27 15:14:38Z

2

Why not change your for loop so that you don't have to iterate over all the files?

for file in *RELEASE*.clu
do
    mv -f "$file" "${file//RELEASE/$1}"
done

Even better, use the rename command if you have it:

rename RELEASE "" *RELEASE*.clu

answered Jun 27, 2014 at 15:14

dogbane

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