how to change the extension of multiple files using bash script?

Question

I am very new with linux usage maybe this is my first time so i hope some detailed help please. I have more than 500 files in multiple directories on my server (Linux) I want to change their extensions to .xml using bash script I used a lot of codes but none of them work some codes i used :

for file in *.txt
do
mv ${file} ${file/.txt}/.xml
done

or

for file in *.*
do
mv ${file} ${file/.*}/.xml
done

i do not know even if the second one is valid code or not i tried to change the txt extension beacuse the prompt said no such file '.txt'

I hope some good help for that thank you

Édouard Lopez · Answer 1 · 2018-12-27T16:04:52.663

8

Explanation

For recursivity you need Bash >=4 and to enable ** (i.e. globstar) ;
First, I use parameter expansion to remove the string .txt, which must be anchored at the end of the filename (%) :
the # anchors the pattern (plain word or glob) to the beginning,
and the % anchors it to the end.
Then I append the new extension .xml
Be extra cautious with filename, you should always quote parameters expansion.

Code

This should do it in Bash (note that I only echothe old/new filename, to actually rename the files, use mv instead of echo) :

shopt -s globstar # enable ** globstar/recursivity
for i in **/*.txt; do
    [[ -d "$i" ]] && continue; # skip directories
    echo "$i" "${i/%.txt}.xml";
done

edited Dec 27 '18 at 16:04

answered Apr 05 '13 at 08:59

Édouard Lopez

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actually it does change the extension of the bash file just. i am lost here beacuse the bash file with .sh extension not txt. The other files still unchanged – unique_programmer Apr 05 '13 at 09:10
1. you got sub-directories ? 2. What kind of file extension should you replace only .txt or others ? – Édouard Lopez Apr 05 '13 at 09:11
i want to change all files' extensions in one directory(which has sub-directories) but most of them are .txt – unique_programmer Apr 05 '13 at 09:14
it does not work it just echo for one time the **/*.txt **/*.xml and if i remove echo it does nothing unfortunately – unique_programmer Apr 05 '13 at 09:30
can we change the extension without saying .txt imean all extension in a directory – unique_programmer Apr 05 '13 at 09:31
If all extension should be rename à `.xml`, just use **/* as glob. Otherwise, you want to have a look at mmv (http://ss64.com/bash/mmv.html) or ask a more precise question – Édouard Lopez Apr 05 '13 at 09:40
Note that you need to replace `echo` with `mv`. – CherryDT Dec 11 '17 at 08:17
It looks like there's a missing semicolon after `continue`. I tried to edit the answer, but edits by people who aren't the author have to be at least 6 characters long. – dx_over_dt Dec 21 '18 at 21:00
1

@dfoverdx thanks, I will update. FYI semicolon is not mandatory in script, only if you make it a one-liner. – Édouard Lopez Dec 27 '18 at 16:04

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 05 '13 at 09:18

2

If its a matter of a one or two sub-directories, you can use the rename command:

rename .txt .xml *.txt

This will rename all the .txt to .xml files in the directory from which the command is executed.

answered Apr 05 '13 at 09:18

Guru

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2
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1

Don't recommend `rename` as "rename(1) could be one of three or four different programs -- or you might not have it on your system. A loop or find expression that uses mv is safer." – Édouard Lopez Apr 05 '13 at 09:20
For more details see: "How can I rename all my *.foo files to *.bar, or convert spaces to underscores, or convert upper-case file names to lower case?" http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/030 – Édouard Lopez Apr 05 '13 at 09:35

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 05 '13 at 10:29

1

If all the files are in same directory, it can be done using a single command. For example you want to convert all jpg files to png, go to the related directory location and then use command

rename .jpg .png *

answered Sep 05 '13 at 10:29

Amol Manthalkar

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poor example... using rename simply renames the files using a new extension. It definitely doesn't "convert" anything. After renaming, you would still have files in jpeg format, but named incorrectly with png extension – Corey Goldberg Jul 03 '17 at 02:27

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 03:15

I wanted to rename "file.txt" to "file.jpg.txt", used rename easy peezy:

rename 's/.txt$/.jpg.txt/' *.txt

man rename will tell you everything you need to know.

Got to love Linux, there's a tool for everything :-)

score -2 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

-2

passing command line argument for dir path

#!/bin/sh
cd $1
names_1=`ls`
for file in ${names_1}
do
mv ${file} ${file}.jpg
done

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Jan 15 '14 at 10:43

siz

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1
5

5

Please don't parse the output of `ls`, it's broken for file names containing spaces... – gniourf_gniourf Jan 15 '14 at 10:51

how to change the extension of multiple files using bash script?

5 Answers5

Explanation

Code

passing command line argument for dir path