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Is it possible, in Linux, to rename a file from something without spaces to something containing spaces?

I know I can create directories and files with spaces by doing:
mkdir "new dir" and:
touch "new file.txt"

I want to rename files from:
imgp0882.jpg to something like:
20091231 1243 some topic.jpg

And how would it look in a shell script that uses parameters like:
for i in *.jpg do
rename "$i" "$somepath/$mydate $mytime $mytopic$extension"
?

A little background:

  • I'm new to Linux (using PCLinuxOS 2009.2), coming from Windows, and I've written myself a little shell script to download files from my camera and then automatically rename them according to a date-and-topic pattern. As you can guess by now, I'm stuck on the bit about renaming.
  • If you want to see my script, here's a copy.
  • I'm not using jhead for this renaming because that only works with JPEG files but I want a single solution for any media format including videos.
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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  • You should know that the *operations* of moving and renaming in Linux are basically equivalent, and are both done using `mv`. The command called `rename` is for renaming a whole batch of files at once according to some pattern. Its use is more complex. – Ryan C. Thompson Jan 28 '10 at 22:45
  • Thanks, that's a great comment, as it's very different from the (not) same DOS/Windows commands. Obviously `mv` is the way to go. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 30 '10 at 10:48

2 Answers2

2

If you're using bash, backslash-escape your spaces:

My\ File\ Name.jpg

Broam
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  • So in a script that would be: rename $inputfile $date\ $time\ topic$ext ? I think I tried that and it just didn't rename but also didn't give an error. I'll try again and report back. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 26 '10 at 22:33
2

Maybe you need to just put quotes around whole destination path? E.g.

$ touch test
$ a=one
$ b=two
$ mv "test" "$a $b"
$ ls -la
total 8
-rw-r--r--  1 whitequark whitequark    0 2010-01-27 01:21  
-rw-r--r--  1 whitequark whitequark    0 2010-01-27 01:20   
drwxr-xr-x  2 whitequark whitequark 4096 2010-01-27 01:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 80 whitequark whitequark 4096 2010-01-27 01:16 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 whitequark whitequark    0 2010-01-27 01:21 one two
Catherine
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  • ah, using the move command instead of rename is a nice trick. I'll see if I can make that work in my script. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 26 '10 at 22:34
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    `rename` is used for renaming stocks of files according to regular expression; it is not a standard way to rename files on *nix despite it's name nor even a standard tool: it is provided by Perl. See `man rename` for details. http://superuser.com/questions/70217/is-there-a-linux-command-like-mv-but-with-regex is a question that is direct opposite for yours. Notice the first answer. – Catherine Jan 26 '10 at 22:38