Rename all subdirectories in csh shell

Question

I'm using csh and I have a directory structure containing multiple sub-directories. I'm trying to rename all the directories and sub-directories but not the files inside these directories. So something like

From

topdir1
--dir11
--dir12
topdir2
--dir21
----dir211
--dir22

to

topdir1.test
--dir11.test
--dir12.test
topdir2.test
--dir21.test
----dir211.test
--dir22.test

I can list the directories with find . -maxdepth 3 -type d. I'm trying to use a foreach loop to rename them. So

foreach i (`find . -maxdepth 3 -type d`)
mv $i $i.test
end

But this doesn't work as once the top level directory is renamed, it cannot find the sub-directories, so it only renames the top level directories.

Any idea on how to go about this?

Thanks

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '14 at 16:04

How about reversing the find results so that the subdirectories are listed first?

foreach i (`find ./* -maxdepth 3 -type d | sort -r`)
mv $i $i.test
end

Sort will output the longest directory names last, using the -r (reverse) flag changes it so that the lowest directories will be listed first, and be renamed before their parent directories do.

rojomoke · Answer 2 · 2014-02-04T16:08:21.217

1

Use the -depth option to find.

From the solaris man find page:

 -depth              Always  true.  Causes  descent  of   the
                     directory  hierarchy  to be done so that
                     all entries in a directory are acted  on
                     before  the  directory itself.  This can
                     be useful when find is used with cpio(1)
                     to  transfer files that are contained in
                     directories without write permission.

edited Feb 04 '14 at 16:08

answered Feb 04 '14 at 16:02

rojomoke

3,765
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Not just from the Solaris man page. This is standard: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/find.html#tag_20_47 – William Pursell Feb 04 '14 at 16:53

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 04 '14 at 16:49

0

Why use a loop? Just let find do the work:

find . -depth -maxdepth 3 -type d -exec mv {} {}.test \;

That is not strictly portable (some implementations of find may legally not expand {}.test to the string you want, so you might prefer:

find . -depth -maxdepth 3 -type d -exec sh -c 'mv $0 $0.test' {} \;

answered Feb 04 '14 at 16:49

William Pursell

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I use a loop so that the directory structure is not changed, just the directory names. This doesn't work as puts all the renamed directories and sub-directories into .test/ – user3271385 Feb 04 '14 at 17:03
No, it renames the directories in the tree in the same way as your loop. `{}` expands to the relative path, not the basename. – William Pursell Feb 04 '14 at 17:17

Rename all subdirectories in csh shell

3 Answers3