...Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 08:12:27 -0800 From: Bob Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: EugLUG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Let's assume a slightly more complicated example, like renaming files *BAR*FOO9[0-9].HTM from the 1990s to *bare*foot_199[0-9].html/usr/bin/rename BAR bare *BAR*FOO9[0-9].HTM /usr/bin/rename FOO9 foot_199 *bare*FOO9[0-9].HTM /usr/bin/rename .HTM .html *bare*foot_199[0-9].HTM
This is actually not as bad as I thought. But if kbob writes it it's probably also as good as it gets.
However, the ELF(*) version of 'rename' Bob is using is not a standard Unix tool: I don't have it on our Sun workstations, or the BSD boxes I am working on (including this account, where I am sending my email from). One of the points in my original post was, to easily move your 'customized & empowered environment' to wherever you go; scripts (.py .pl .sh) are more likely to be portable than binaries, i.e. I can't mess around in my ISP's lib area.
So, rename(ELF) is not really 'doing it the Unix way'(for those who care) --it's a specialized program, and as such on the same level as wc2fn. That said, rename(ELF) only covers a small subset of what wc2fn can do (it's missing the generic command and program wraps wc2fn offers, as well the specialized(=handy) symlinks applications any user can customize fairly easily).
Beyond those limitations, there are same potentially dangerous aspects to rename(ELF): my ' 1 Januari 2000 ' man pages don't give any hint how directories and symlinks are handled. Well, I tested: directories were affected as well as symlinks (but rendered dangling/broken). In contrasts, wc2fn currently excludes dirs and symlinks, has a very brief discussion on the subject, and puts the subject on the TODO list. Moreover, if you run wc2fn with the -v (verbose) option you are informed about which files are skipped and why.
About rename(ELF): to avoid confusion, the ELF binary is different from the perl version of 'rename' Hal and I were talking about earlier. The perl version uses regExpr, as I recall.
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It's interesting, my original post had several aspects:
One aspect was how to perform specific file system operation; we saw a number of interesting alternatives and code examples.
Another, more general, aspect was how/if we can/should integrate the common parts of any of those 'rename' or whatever applications into one shell tool that can handle the, what I call source:destination pairs treatment, plus a hook to apply any command to such pairs.
I am obviously biased regarding the latter ........... Horst
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