sed removing spaces before and after something

Question

I'm wondering how to make mass rename (using rename or sed/awk), for files like this:

Name 1 - Name 2 - Name 3.doc
Name 1- Name 2 - Name 3.doc
Name 1 -Name 2 - Name 3.doc

the problem is that i want to have all files in the same schema, for example

Name 1-Name 2-Name 3.doc

without spaces at all. I'm reading rename documentation but can't find way to do this.

jaypal singh · Answer 1 · 2013-06-16T23:34:00.477

2

How about:

for file in *.doc; do 
   mv "$file" "$(sed 's# *- *#-#g' <<< "$file")"
done

edited Jun 16 '13 at 23:34

answered Jun 16 '13 at 23:09

jaypal singh

but it removes all spaces, and i need to remove only spaces before and after '-', is it possible at all by one action? – user1854236 Jun 16 '13 at 23:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

2

Try doing this :

rename 's/\s*-\s*/-/g' *.doc

You need the Perl's rename, see this post

edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

Community

answered Jun 16 '13 at 23:25

Gilles Quénot

Works fine, thanks man, only one problem is it deletes spaces only before and after first '-', not the second one. cheers! – user1854236 Jun 16 '13 at 23:32

2 Answers2