Rename multiple .txt files changing some characters in specific positions

I have a collections of hundreds of .txt files in the same folder in Ubuntu 16.04, and they're named with strings and index numbers, like that:

a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt
a01_s01_e02_skeleton.txt
a01_s01_e03_skeleton.txt
a01_s02_e01_skeleton.txt
...
a20_s10_e02_skeleton.txt
...


I must remove the 0 (zeros) from every .txt file where the number is smaller than 10, so in the end I'll have:

instead of : a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt

it will be: a1_s1_e1_skeleton.txt #notice that the 0s are gone.


EDIT

The position of the numbers is always the same, like in the examples. The files have a logic of order, so the renaming process must be totally correct.

How could I do that using the command line?

5 Answers
5

Ok, just for fun, no doubt there are shorter cli solutions, but in python, the script below does the job if the directory is "flat" (as you say) and all files in it are valid files to rename. If not, we need to add an exception, so here we go:

import shutil
import sys
import os

dr = sys.argv[1]

for f in os.listdir(dr):
sections = f.split("_")
newname = "_".join(
[s[0] + str(int(s[1:])) for s in sections[:3]] + [sections[-1]]
)
shutil.move(os.path.join(dr, f), os.path.join(dr, newname))


rename_stuff.py

Run it with the directory as argument:

python3 /path/to/rename_stuff.py </directory/with/files>


As always, first try on a sample directory.

Read the files in the directory:

for f in os.listdir(dr):


Split the name by "_":

sections = f.split("_")


On the first three sections, replace the two (or more) -digit number by its int- ("real") value, so 01 -> 1, 10 -> 10, 020 -> 20, 000300 -> 300 and so on.

Subsequently, glue the sections together again:

newname = "_".join(
[s[0] + str(int(s[1:])) for s in sections[:3]] + [sections[-1]]
)


With the perl rename, you can remove zeroes that occur between a non-digit and a digit.

rename

$ touch a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt a01_s01_e02_skeleton.txt a01_s01_e03_skeleton.txt a01_s02_e01_skeleton.txt a20_s10_e02_skeleton.txt
$ rename -n 's/(?<=D)0+(?=d)//g' *.txt
rename(a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt, a1_s1_e1_skeleton.txt)
rename(a01_s01_e02_skeleton.txt, a1_s1_e2_skeleton.txt)
rename(a01_s01_e03_skeleton.txt, a1_s1_e3_skeleton.txt)
rename(a01_s02_e01_skeleton.txt, a1_s2_e1_skeleton.txt)
rename(a20_s10_e02_skeleton.txt, a20_s10_e2_skeleton.txt)


rename may or may not be the perl version. On my system it is called file-rename and it has an alternatives symlink as /usr/bin/rename

rename

file-rename

/usr/bin/rename

Using rename alias rename.ul installed from the package util-linux, I made the following bash shellscript, that I think can do the job for you.

rename

rename.ul

#!/bin/bash

#####################


doer ()

# removes "0" from the string "parameter0"
# for example a0 --> a

rename "s/$10/$1/" *

#####################

# main

#####################

doer a
doer s
doer e


Let us call the shellscript renamer and give it execute permissions.

renamer

If zeros to be removed are preceded by other letters than a,s,e, please add a call of doer with those letters into the script and modify the shellscript, if there are instances, not shown by your sample file names, which need more details in the substitute specification (the function doer).

doer

doer

Create and check 'original' files

$ touch a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt a01_s01_e02_skeleton.txt a01_s01_e03_skeleton.txt a01_s02_e01_skeleton.txt a20_s10_e02_skeleton.txt
$ ls -1
a01_s01_e01_skeleton.txt
a01_s01_e02_skeleton.txt
a01_s01_e03_skeleton.txt
a01_s02_e01_skeleton.txt
a20_s10_e02_skeleton.txt
renamer


Run the shellscript

$ ./renamer


Check the result

$ ls -1
a1_s1_e1_skeleton.txt
a1_s1_e2_skeleton.txt
a1_s1_e3_skeleton.txt
a1_s2_e1_skeleton.txt
a20_s10_e2_skeleton.txt
renamer
$


rename "s/[ase]0/$1/" *

rename

rename-ul

rename

Perl's rename utility is the best option for this, I think.

rename 's/(w)0(d)/$1$2/g' *.txt


This command will replace all occurrences of a letter followed by a zero followed by a digit, retaining the letter and the digit while discarding the zero, for every text file in the current directory.

Using zsh:

autoload zmv
zmv 'a(<->)_s(<->)_e(<->)_skeleton.txt' 'a$1#0_s$2#0_e$3#0_skeleton.txt'


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