QUOTE
perl -le 'rename $_, lc( $_ ) foreach <*>'
This "tip" is available through the random tip son the linuxhelp.ca frontpage.
Full Version: Moving Groups Of Files From Upper To Low
Often times when you transfer files from Windows to Linux, they end up with all Capital letters. While generally, this isn't much of a problem, sometimes this includes large directories and Linux will not see "FILENAME.EXE" the same as "filename.exe". The solution is to issue the following perl command to rename everything in a directory from upper to lower case:
This "tip" is available through the random tip son the linuxhelp.ca frontpage.
This "tip" is available through the random tip son the linuxhelp.ca frontpage.
just a suggestion...
We should also explain the tricks
We should also explain the tricks
Ok ... here is the explaination:
PERL is magic
----------------------
Actually, the perl -l is to run perl, -e switch allows you to execute the information inside the quotes with the perl interpretor ... it's like running a perl script that contains the information inside the quotes ... in this case the perl command that is executed is: rename $_, lc( $_ ) foreach <*>
$_ (in perl) is the topic ... which in generic terms means the currently selected item...if you want a more detailed explaination of topic, see this. In this code, the topic is going to be a filename.
lc() is a function in perl to convert text to lowercase ... in this example, it converts $_ (the filename) to lowercase.
rename x,y in perl will rename file x to the name y ... it is very similar to the command mv in bash (except there is a comma between filenames). In this case $_ (the original filename) is renamed to lc($_) the lowercase filename.
foreach defines a list of items to do sometime on ... in this case <*> will generate a list including all files in a directory...try this command to see a list of all the files in a directory: perl -le 'print $_ foreach <*>'
So, put it all together and perl -le 'rename $_, lc( $_ ) foreach <*>' will convert all filenames in a directory to thier lowercase equivalant.
I actually know a little bit about perl ... see my old website ... which I haven't updated since 1999 (i think) ... I don't even know the passwords to make changes to the site anymore....(WOW what a flashback!)
PERL is magic
----------------------
Actually, the perl -l is to run perl, -e switch allows you to execute the information inside the quotes with the perl interpretor ... it's like running a perl script that contains the information inside the quotes ... in this case the perl command that is executed is: rename $_, lc( $_ ) foreach <*>
$_ (in perl) is the topic ... which in generic terms means the currently selected item...if you want a more detailed explaination of topic, see this. In this code, the topic is going to be a filename.
lc() is a function in perl to convert text to lowercase ... in this example, it converts $_ (the filename) to lowercase.
rename x,y in perl will rename file x to the name y ... it is very similar to the command mv in bash (except there is a comma between filenames). In this case $_ (the original filename) is renamed to lc($_) the lowercase filename.
foreach defines a list of items to do sometime on ... in this case <*> will generate a list including all files in a directory...try this command to see a list of all the files in a directory: perl -le 'print $_ foreach <*>'
So, put it all together and perl -le 'rename $_, lc( $_ ) foreach <*>' will convert all filenames in a directory to thier lowercase equivalant.
I actually know a little bit about perl ... see my old website ... which I haven't updated since 1999 (i think) ... I don't even know the passwords to make changes to the site anymore....(WOW what a flashback!)
Yeah..Thanks for explanation...i have checked your site also...
interesting....
interesting....
Just so everyone knows ... I was an NT and UNIX guy back in 1999 (I was just playing around with Linux on a webserver or 2 back then)...I am a Linux guy now!
(Like I said before...I haven't changed that site since 1999).
-----------------------------------------------
And now, back on topic:
For anyone who would rather convert upper to lower case with a shell script...here it is (I named it lowerit.sh):
The above file needs to be in the directory you want to change files in ... and it won't currently do files that start with a . (like .Abc123Z) won't get converted ... because most . files are setup files and you don't want to change their case. If you do want to also change the case of . files, change the line for x in `ls` to for x in `ls -a`
(Like I said before...I haven't changed that site since 1999).
-----------------------------------------------
And now, back on topic:
For anyone who would rather convert upper to lower case with a shell script...here it is (I named it lowerit.sh):
CODE
#!/bin/sh
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
do
if [ ! -f $x ]; then
continue
fi
lc=`echo $x | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
if [ $lc != $x ]; then
mv -i $x $lc
fi
done
# End of lowerit script
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
do
if [ ! -f $x ]; then
continue
fi
lc=`echo $x | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
if [ $lc != $x ]; then
mv -i $x $lc
fi
done
# End of lowerit script
The above file needs to be in the directory you want to change files in ... and it won't currently do files that start with a . (like .Abc123Z) won't get converted ... because most . files are setup files and you don't want to change their case. If you do want to also change the case of . files, change the line for x in `ls` to for x in `ls -a`
How about renaming whole filename from uppercase to lowercase..here is a solution using gawk..
$ ls -l|awk `{printf("mv %s %sn",$9,totupper($9))|"/bin/bash"}`
$ ls -l|awk `{printf("mv %s %sn",$9,totupper($9))|"/bin/bash"}`
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