ansaurus

Question

Answer 1

+4 A:

Via bash:

for file in *--*; do
    mv "${file}" "${file/--/.}"
done

The magic is in ${file/--/.} which is the value of ${file} except with each "--" changed to a "."

R Samuel Klatchko 2010-05-21 20:19:11

Nice one. I was trying to write one but you beat me to it!

Josh 2010-05-21 20:20:34

You should always quote any variable that contains filenames. `mv "${file}" "${file/--/.}"`

Dennis Williamson 2010-05-21 21:03:39

@DennisWilliamson - I've updated my answer, but to be precise, you need to quote anything that may have whitespace in them.

R Samuel Klatchko 2010-05-21 21:54:04

Answer 2

+4 A:

As an alternative to pure shell, you can use rename, a standard utility that comes with Perl. It's more convenient for simple cases.

rename 's/--/./' *

ire_and_curses 2010-05-21 20:33:50

That's really cool. Didn't know that.

tangens 2010-05-21 20:40:37

Change -- to . for all files in a directory