Rename files ordered by date

Question

I'm having trouble with this script:

#!/bin/bash
echo -n "Digit new name (no spaces and special chars!): "
read newname

echo -e "\n"

i=0

if test "$(ls -A | grep [.]jpg)"; then
    for f in "$(ls -Atr | grep [.]jpg)"; do
        let i=i+1
        #mv "$f" "$(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")"
        echo "$f renamed in: " $(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")
    done
    echo -e "\n\033[1;33;41m$i substituded!\033[0m\a"
else
    echo -e "\n\033[1;33;41mNothing was done!\033[0m\a"
fi
sleep 3

exit

My problem is to substitute all file but ordered by date (older first). On script above, I'm testing with echo and the result is all the list of files is renamed in one single files.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

The problem is that you're quoting "$(ls -Atr | grep [.]jpg)" so you're getting just a long string with all the filenames.

This would be a better attempt:

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Digit new name (no spaces and special chars!): " newname
echo
i=0
if test "$(ls -A | grep [.]jpg)"; then
    while IFS= read -r f; do
        let i=i+1
        #mv "$f" "$(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")"
        echo "$f renamed in: " $(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")
    done < <(ls -Atr | grep [.]jpg)
    echo -e "\n\033[1;33;41m$i substituded!\033[0m\a"
else
    echo -e "\n\033[1;33;41mNothing was done!\033[0m\a"
fi

Notice I'm using:

read -p "Digit new name (no spaces and special chars!): " newname

Instead of:

echo -n "Digit new name (no spaces and special chars!): "
read newname

-p option is for that purpose and output the text in the standard error.

Updated answer

Here an enhanced method supporting also special chars:

#!/bin/bash
shopt -s nullglob
read -p "Digit new name (no spaces and special chars!): " newname
echo
if test "$(ls -A | grep [.]jpg)"; then
    while read -r f; do
        ((i++))
        f=${f:1:((${#f}-2))} # remove the leading and trailing '
        f=${f//\\\"/\"}      # removed the \ before any embedded "
        f=$(echo -e "$f")    # interpret the escaped characters
        echo "$f renamed in: " $(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")
        #mv "$f" "$(printf "${newname}_%03d.jpg" "$i")"
        #file "$f"           # it's useful to test the script
    done < <(ls -Atr --quoting-style=c *.jpg .*.jpg)
else
    echo -e "\n\033[1;33;41mNothing was done!\033[0m\a"
fi

You can see a more explained answer here.

Rename files ordered by date

1 Answers1

Updated answer