Batch change multiple file names in bash and save output

Question

I'm trying to change multiple file names with a for loop.

This works to send the output to the screen:

for i in *.gz; do echo $i | sed 's/\-//g'; done

However, when I try to overwrite the file name using sed -i, I get this error:

for i in *.gz; do echo $i | sed -i 's/\-//g'; done
sed: no input files

Any suggestions?

What is your intention here? To remove the - character from the names of your .gz files? How are you using sed -i? Include that code in your question so that it is clear. See this related post: Batch renaming files on Unix & Linux. — codeforester
– codeforester, Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 21:41

karakfa · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-11 21:43:18Z

1

there is a command for this

$ rename - '' *.gz

NB. this is the standard one, not the advanced perl version.

answered Sep 11, 2018 at 21:43

karakfa

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Comments

PesaThe · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-11 21:47:51Z

0

Use Perl rename instead:

rename 's/-//g' *.gz

for i in *.gz; do mv -- "$i" "${i//-}"; done

answered Sep 11, 2018 at 21:42

PesaThe

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Thanks, rename worked. Just curious though, why doesn't sed -i work in this case?

@AlexBlumenfeld Because sed simply edited the text sent to it by echo. It didn't actually work with any files, hence the error.