[SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

anotherjohn · 2009-09-25 19:24:57

Hi

I've got a bunch of files with numbers in the name. I want to rename the ones numbered 1 - 9 to add a leading zero, so they sort correctly lexicographically.

I used $1 to back-reference the digit, but it didn't work and I don't know why:

[~] prename -n "s/_(\d)\.txt/_0$1\.txt/" *
file_1.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_2.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_3.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_4.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_5.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_6.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_7.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_8.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_9.txt renamed as file_0.txt

Any help appreciated.

Last edited by anotherjohn (2009-09-25 21:46:27)

brisbin33 · 2009-09-25 20:07:46

uh oh! i hope you backed up before you ran that

i can't speak for prename, but in /this/ case, rename would've worked fine:

┌─[ 16:05 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> touch file_{1..9}.txt
┌─[ 16:05 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> ls file*
file_1.txt  file_4.txt  file_7.txt
file_2.txt  file_5.txt  file_8.txt
file_3.txt  file_6.txt  file_9.txt
┌─[ 16:05 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> rename file_ file_0 file*.txt
┌─[ 16:05 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> ls file*
file_01.txt  file_04.txt  file_07.txt
file_02.txt  file_05.txt  file_08.txt
file_03.txt  file_06.txt  file_09.txt

sorry for the hindsight advice . hopefully a prename user will come along and tell you why what you did didn't work.

N-Acc · 2009-09-25 20:26:36

try escaping the `$1' in your regex or use single quotes.. otherwise it is intepreted by the shell.

edit: I'm not sure how prename works .. but it looks weird to me that $1 is used to refer to a group instead of \1.

Last edited by N-Acc (2009-09-25 20:33:15)

anotherjohn · 2009-09-25 20:56:36

Hi folks, thanks for your replies.

brisbin33: The -n option to prename makes it tell you what it would have done, without actually doing it. Also, your solution would add a leading '0' to the two-digit numbers as well, but thanks for trying

N-Acc wrote:

try escaping the `$1' in your regex or use single quotes.. otherwise it is intepreted by the shell.

We have a winner!

I can't *believe* I didn't try that. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did try that. Either way, it works now, thanks

[~] prename -n "s/_(\d)\.txt/_0\$1\.txt/" *
file_1.txt renamed as file_01.txt
file_2.txt renamed as file_02.txt
file_3.txt renamed as file_03.txt
file_4.txt renamed as file_04.txt
file_5.txt renamed as file_05.txt
file_6.txt renamed as file_06.txt
file_7.txt renamed as file_07.txt
file_8.txt renamed as file_08.txt
file_9.txt renamed as file_09.txt

Incidentally, 'echo' shows the problem immediately:

[~] echo prename -n "s/_(\d)\.txt/_0$1\.txt/"
prename -n s/_(\d)\.txt/_0\.txt/

[~] echo prename -n "s/_(\d)\.txt/_0\$1\.txt/"
prename -n s/_(\d)\.txt/_0$1\.txt/

Last edited by anotherjohn (2009-09-25 21:04:59)

brisbin33 · 2009-09-25 21:33:00

anotherjohn wrote:

...but thanks for trying

john,

i'm glad you've got it solved, but please note:

you wrote:

[~] prename -n "s/_(\d)\.txt/_$1\.txt/" *
file_1.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_2.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_3.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_4.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_5.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_6.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_7.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_8.txt renamed as file_0.txt
file_9.txt renamed as file_0.txt

me wrote:

in /this/ case, rename would've worked fine

i was very careful and purposely emphasized "in /this/ case" .

Procyon · 2009-09-25 21:42:25

anotherjohn wrote:

Also, your solution would add a leading '0' to the two-digit numbers as well

As `man rename` says, it can be used with ? instead of * for this reason.

Convergence · 2011-08-17 16:03:41

I need to do the same operation that anotherjohn needed to do. I don't have prename however, I thought that it was the same thing as perl-rename, so I installed that, but it didn't work. Where can I find prename?

falconindy · 2011-08-17 16:52:16

Old thread is old, perl-rename is prename, and "didn't work" is unhelpful. I suggest you start a new thread.

fsckd · 2011-08-17 17:00:26

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … Bumping.27
Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-25 19:24:57

[SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#2 2009-09-25 20:07:46

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#3 2009-09-25 20:26:36

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#4 2009-09-25 20:56:36

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#5 2009-09-25 21:33:00

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#6 2009-09-25 21:42:25

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#7 2011-08-17 16:03:41

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#8 2011-08-17 16:52:16

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

#9 2011-08-17 17:00:26

Re: [SOLVED]What is wrong with this invocation of prename?

Board footer