sed command usage to replace names with spaces

Question

I have huge number of files with some names ahead of real filename. Following is the example of the problem:

Nora Hmann - sub-01.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-02.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-03.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-04.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-05.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-06.zip

Now using sed commnd i want to remove Nora Hmann - and just keep sub-01.zip. can some one help me with sed command as string to be replaces contains spaces, sed is not doing its properly.

Spaces are not an issue for sed. Please [edit] your question and show us the command you were using. Also, please clarify if all your lines will contain Nora Hmann -. Would it be enough to remove that specific string? Can we always remove everything before the first -? What will change on the different lines? — terdon, Jan 10 '17 at 13:20
also, can you clarify you want to rename filenames or is this text processing of file contents? — Sundeep, Jan 10 '17 at 13:43

ValeriyKr · Answer 1 · 2017-01-10T14:21:38.473

4

Erasing list of this names to suffix after the last space:

sed 's/.* //'

But if it is couple of files in directory, it's simpler to use rename:

rename 's/^.* //' *

edited Jan 10 '17 at 14:21

answered Jan 10 '17 at 13:29

ValeriyKr

929

13dimitar · Answer 2 · 2017-01-10T14:14:15.733

3

Use the following command:

sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ \-\ //g" stack

before:

Nora Hmann - sub-01.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-02.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-03.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-04.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-05.zip
Nora Hmann - sub-06.zip

after:

sub-01.zip
sub-02.zip
sub-03.zip
sub-04.zip
sub-05.zip
sub-06.zip

To loop it (I assume you're executed your bash script from the directory, where all files which are going to be modified are located):

for i in `ls -w1`
do
 sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ \-\ //g" /path/to/$i
done

edited Jan 10 '17 at 14:14

answered Jan 10 '17 at 13:21

13dimitar

1,529

but how to use the command. When tried it says sed: no input file – learnningprogramming Jan 10 '17 at 13:40
replace stack with the name of the file, which you're about to modify. – 13dimitar Jan 10 '17 at 13:48
the issue is, when i give batch command for f in Nora*.zip; do sed command $f; done; given files names have spaces in between, sed throws away error as it tries to rename files as follows: sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ \-\ //g" Nora – learnningprogramming Jan 10 '17 at 14:01
ok, if your script indeed is:
for f in ls -w1 Nora*.zip do sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ -\ //g" $f done
– 13dimitar Jan 10 '17 at 14:02
Still getting error: login2.ls5(123)$ for f in *.zip; do sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ \-\ //g" $f; done sed: can't read Nora: No such file or directory – learnningprogramming Jan 10 '17 at 14:10
1

Check my answer again. – 13dimitar Jan 10 '17 at 14:15
Getting following error with your suggested loop:
for i inls -w1 *.zip`

do sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ -\ //g" $i done

sed: can't read Nora: No such file or directory sed: can't read Heinzelmann: No such file or directory sed: can't read -: No such file or directory`
– learnningprogramming Jan 10 '17 at 14:22
ok, go with find /path/to/files -type f -exec sed -ie "s/Nora\ Hmann\ \-\ //g" {} \; - single command executed from shell – 13dimitar Jan 10 '17 at 14:29
the issue with sed command too. Coz when i use it for single file: Nora Hmann - sub-01.zip Nora Hmann - sub-01.zipe – learnningprogramming Jan 10 '17 at 14:37
the sed command when used for a single file is not givng intended results. – learnningprogramming Jan 11 '17 at 03:26
@Dimitar See Why not parse ls?. – Timothy Martin Jan 12 '17 at 19:41

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 10 '17 at 13:27

1

Another solution by using cut and sed:

cat filename.txt | cut -d'-' -f2- |  sed 's/^ //g'

Another one only with cut (and only in case of the names are composed by first name and surname separated by space):

cat filename.txt | cut -d' ' -f4-

answered Jan 10 '17 at 13:27

Zumo de Vidrio

1,703

Kusalananda · Answer 4 · 2017-01-12T19:40:44.903

With bash or ksh, assuming the files are in the current directory:

for name in ./"Nora Hmann - sub-"??.zip; do
  newname="./${name##* }"
  mv -i "$name" "$newname"
done

The parameter expansion ${name##* } will remove everything from $name up until (and including) the last space character.

If the name at the start of the filename is not fixed, then the following will grab all Zip files and try to rename them in the same manner:

for name in ./*.zip; do
  newname="./${name##* }"
  mv -i "$name" "$newname"
done

I've opted for using mv -i in these examples so that you interactively have to confirm any renaming that would overwrite an already existing file.

Another way to do it would be to simply skip files that would otherwise overwrite existing files:

for name in ./*.zip; do
  newname="./${name##* }"
  if [[ ! -e "$newname" ]]; then
    mv "$name" "$newname"
  else
    printf 'Not renaming "%s", new filename exists\n' "$name" >&2
  fi
done

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 15 '23 at 19:45

0

If you don't mind losing the second -, another solution is using tr:

x='Nora Hmann - sub-01.zip'
printf '%s\n' "$x" | tr -d 'NoraHmn -'
sub01.zip

Note this relies on the fact that the characters in the set 'NoraHmn -' do not intersect with sub*.zip.

edited Mar 15 '23 at 19:45

Kusalananda

333,661

answered Mar 15 '23 at 18:29

Lee

495

sed command usage to replace names with spaces

5 Answers5