The "rename" command does not replace the space in a file name

Skaper · 2020-07-31 18:46:15

Hi,

I am trying to write a script that will substitute spaces in file names into underscores. mv command does not work, as it expects a directory as the last argument for some reason. I read about rename command and so I tried the following;

 rename 's/\ /_/g' ${1}

This produces an error stating it does not have enough arguments for some reason. Upon reading the man page I found out that the correct way of writing the command is the following (which works but not completely);

rename \  _ ${1} # There is a space after backslash.

This works but the problem is it only replaces the first ever blank space in the name of the file. Searching the internet, I only found the first mentioned use of the command.

How do I make it so that the command replaces all of the spaces in the file name?

eschwartz · 2020-07-31 19:06:52

There are two rename commands. The good one is in the perl-rename package and, appropriately, is `perl-rename 's/\ /_/g' ${1}`, the mediocre one comes from util-linux and is installed by default.

Some linux distributions call it "prename" or "file-rename", and/or offer an option to choose between the two for the /usr/bin/rename file.

jasonwryan · 2020-07-31 19:22:12

for target in *, do mv "$target" "${target// /_}"; done

#edit thanks seth

Last edited by jasonwryan (2020-07-31 20:38:35)

Skaper · 2020-08-01 05:34:05

jasonwryan wrote:

for target in *, do mv "$target" "${target// /_}"; done

Thank you. That worked.

Arch Linux

#1 2020-07-31 18:46:15

The "rename" command does not replace the space in a file name

#2 2020-07-31 19:06:52

Re: The "rename" command does not replace the space in a file name

#3 2020-07-31 19:22:12

Re: The "rename" command does not replace the space in a file name

#4 2020-08-01 05:34:05

Re: The "rename" command does not replace the space in a file name

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