[kwlug-disc] bash - file renaming

[Ronald Barnes]

Jason Eckert wrote on 26/09/2019 04.04:

> Why not write a simple for loop in bash?
> for $FILE in *
> do
> mv $FILE $FILE.whatever
> done

Hi Jason,

I'm looking for the syntax style of the DOS ren utility which I still 
have in muscle memory all these years later.

And which matches, roughly, the syntax of "cp" and "mv".



I like to think of what I wrote as "one loop to rule them all".


Also, writing / editing a script each time a task requires it is not 
particularly efficient.  I find it preferable to write it once and reuse 
indefinitely.

This script handles many different scenarios without modifications.


Writing a script each time the need pops up is inefficient and leads to 
errors creeping in (quotes...).


Finally, it was an excellent deep dive into bash - using many of the 
different substitutions it provides. That alone  made it all worthwhile.


Cheers,

rb