mass rename brings errors

Question

I have got the following files in current dir:

file_73tyd7d.jpg
file_e8djuh.jpeg
file_eidie8d.jpg
file_iadiijj.jpg

I want:

0.jpg
1.jpeg
2.jpg
3.jpg

I first do:

NB=0;for FILE in `ls`;do echo mv "${FILE}" "${NB}.${FILE#*.*}";((NB=NB+1));done

or

NB=0;for FILE in `ls`;do echo mv "${FILE}" "${NB}"."${FILE#*.*}";((NB=NB+1));done

output:

file_73tyd7d.jpg 0.jpg  -> why is that? 
mv file_e8djuh.jpeg 1.jpeg
mv file_eidie8d.jpg 2.jpg
mv file_iadiijj.jpg 3.jpg

apart from the first file, it looks good. now I do:

NB=0;for FILE in `ls`;do mv "${FILE}" "${NB}.${FILE#*.*}";((NB=NB+1));done

and I have got the following error:

mv: cannot stat ''$'\033''[H'$'\033''[2J'$'\033''[3J'$'\033''[0m'$'\033''[01;35mfile_73tyd7d.jpg'$'\033''[0m': No such file or directory

mv: cannot stat ''$'\033''[01;35mfile_e8djuh.jpeg'$'\033''[0m': No such file or directory

mv: cannot stat ''$'\033''[01;35mfile_eidie8d.jpg'$'\033''[0m': No such file or directory

mv: cannot stat ''$'\033''[01;35mfile_iadiijj.jpg'$'\033''[0m': No such file or directory

Is `ls` an alias to `ls --color=always`? Run `unalias ls` and try again — oguz ismail, Apr 05 '23 at 04:37
Use: `$(/usr/bin/ls)` (or `$(/bin/ls)`). The `$(…)` notation is generally a better idea than backticks — if only because it is far easier to nest uses of `$(…)`. And using `/usr/bin/ls` or `/bin/ls` avoids getting colours in the output; add `--color=never` if need be. Another possibility is to use `command ls` instead of just `ls` — that avoids aliases and functions and so on. — Jonathan Leffler, Apr 05 '23 at 04:49
@ismail: Nice! doing `\ls` instead of `ls` works! (the alias is effectively responsible for the trouble!) — achille, Apr 05 '23 at 05:05
Better yet, [don't parse `ls` at all](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs), just use `for FILE in *;do`. `ls` is really intended to display lists of files to the users, not to get lists for processing in a script. — Gordon Davisson, Apr 05 '23 at 05:24

M. Nejat Aydin · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-05T07:39:30.363

1

For this task, do not use ls at all. ls is supposed to be used interactively (See Why you shouldn't parse the output of ls). Also, do not use all-caps names for your own variable names (See Correct Bash and shell script variable capitalization). Your script should have been written something like this:

#!/bin/bash

nb=0
for file in *; do
    echo mv -i -- "$file" "$((nb++)).${file##*.}"
done

edited Apr 05 '23 at 07:39

answered Apr 05 '23 at 06:34

M. Nejat Aydin

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mass rename brings errors

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