remove only the last extension from file name

Question

I have file names that look something similar to this

name_1.23.ps.png

or

name_1.23.ps.best

or

name_1.23.ps

I want to take off the random file extensions on the end and be left with just

name_1.23.ps

Other questions similar to this use '.' as a delimator but this removes everything after name_1.

I want to do this on the command line (in tcsh or bash)

You may use a regex: `/^\w*.\w*.\w*/gm` or just split the string by `.` and take the first 3 items. — Alex Filipovici, Aug 15 '13 at 10:48
So given a.b.c.X, where X may contain periods, you want to return always a.b.c? — Joni, Aug 15 '13 at 10:49

Kent · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-15T11:29:06.897

11

check this if it works for your requirement:

sed

sed 's/\.[^.]*$//'

grep

grep -Po '.*(?=\.)'

test:

kent$  cat f
name_1.23.ps.png
name_1.23.ps.best
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps

#sed:
kent$  sed 's/\.[^.]*$//' f
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23
name_1.23

#grep
kent$  grep -Po '.*(?=\.)' f
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23
name_1.23

EDIT from the comments. I feel it would be new requirement:

grep

kent$  grep -o '.*\.ps' f                                                                                         
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps

sed

kent$  sed 's/\(.*\.ps\)\..*/\1/' f
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps
name_1.23.ps

edited Aug 15 '13 at 11:29

answered Aug 15 '13 at 11:06

Kent

189,393
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This doesn't work for me as it leaves some files with .ps and some with no extension at all – user1958508 Aug 15 '13 at 11:10
it removes **only the last** extension. as you wished. if it didn't work for you for some cases, pls show the example input. @user1958508 – Kent Aug 15 '13 at 11:15
1

I want to take off anything after '.ps' but if it ends with only '.ps' keep it as the same. – user1958508 Aug 15 '13 at 11:18
@user1958508 is `.ps` always in your filename? – Kent Aug 15 '13 at 11:23
@user1958508 see the EDIT in answer. – Kent Aug 15 '13 at 11:29

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '16 at 23:30

We can use the bash string operation that deletes the shortest match of a glob patten from the back of a string. We will use ".*" for the glob pattern.

filename="name_1.23.ps.png"                                                      
echo ${filename%.*}                                                              
# the above output name_1.23.ps

This answer is more for my own reference as I come back to this page a few times. (It does not satisfy the OP's additional requirement of keeping the original string the same if it ends with only '.ps').

That's exactly what I was looking for! – pbies Nov 14 '18 at 19:13 — pbies, Nov 14 '18 at 19:13

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 15 '13 at 10:55

-1

Try this:

string="name_1.23.ps.png"
array=(${string//./ })
echo "${array[0]}.${array[1]}.${array[2]}"

answered Aug 15 '13 at 10:55

Alex Filipovici

31,789
6
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remove only the last extension from file name

3 Answers3