truncate directory names to certain length

[Ryan Byrd]

I wanted to get first post...

Here's my solution:

#!/bin/bash

for i in $( ls  );
do
src=$i
tgt=`expr substr $i 1 5`
mv $src $tgt
done


On 5/16/07, Dave Smith <dave at thesmithfam.org> wrote:
>
> Wade Preston Shearer wrote:
> > I have a directory full of directories that are all named in the
> > following manner:
> >
> > #####_alpha_name
> >
> >
> > I need them renamed to just:
> >
> > #####
> >
> >
> > Is there an easy way via the command line to truncate them to just the
> > first five characters (which would be just their ID number)?
>
> This works for me, but is probably overkill:
>
> for file in *; do
>     new_name=$(echo $file | sed 's/^\([0-9]\{5\}\).*/\1/')
>     echo Renaming "$file" to "$new_name"
>     mv -v "$file" "$new_name"
> done
>
>
> You can change the \{5\} to whatever number you want to indicate the
> number of digits to capture in a row.
>
> --Dave
>
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