Renaming files os.rename() to timestamps returns weird string

Question

So I am trying to rename some files to the time in their creation date using os.stat("file").st_stat. Then I pop the superfluous information, I only need the time because they are already sorted by date in dated folders. The code is kind of spaghetti, i am still a beginner after all. I use so many str() because sometimes I get 'None' objects from os.listdir() and i got some error trying to format integers in strings. So the problem is that it doesn't work properly. I got rid of all the errors, and boy they were many, but it doesn't rename to a timestamp. I get stuff like this "0R3IJL~J". And it changes with the timestamp. That makes me think that it is somehow related to time and that it can be fixed.

The files that I am trying to rename are .h264 and I am working on Raspbian, on a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

Here are some more examples of the names I am getting: 06RR8I~Y, 0OFKLJ~J, 0O5KZV~I, 0PJJ0D~V.

import os
import datetime


dates = []
for i in range(1,7):
    if 1 <= i <= 6:
        i = "0{}".format(str(i))
    for j in range(1,31):
        if 1 <= j <= 9:
            j = "0{}".format(str(j))
        dates.append("2019-{}-{}".format( i, j))


for dt in dates:
    if os.path.exists(str(dt)):
        os.chdir(str(dt))
        for fil in os.listdir("."):
            created = os.stat(str(fil)).st_ctime
            da_cr = str(datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(created))
            print type(da_cr)
            li_cr = list(da_cr)
            if li_cr[-7] == ".":
                for i in range(7):
                    li_cr.pop(-1)
            for i in range(11):
                li_cr.pop(0)
            nn = "".join(l_c for l_c in li_cr)
            print fil
            os.rename(fil, str(nn))
        os.chdir("../")

accdias · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-03T01:38:14.623

0

I guess this will do the trick for you but bear in mind you will need to implement a lot of checks to make it safer. I just rewrote and simplify your code without taking care of safety checks.

import os
from datetime import datetime

dates = []
for i in range(1, 7):
    for j in range(1, 31):
        dates.append("2019-%0.2d-%0.2d" % (i, j))

for date in dates:
    if os.path.exists(date):
        os.chdir(date)
        for filename in os.listdir("."):
            timestamp = datetime.fromtimestamp(os.stat(filename).st_ctime)
            os.rename(filename, timestamp.time())
        os.chdir("..")

edited Mar 03 '19 at 01:38

answered Mar 03 '19 at 01:28

accdias

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Thank you, you cleand it, but it still looks the same for me (the file name). But you made me realize that it only looks weird (0LY9L7~F) over samba. Over ssh looks fine (02:30:43.238023). If i get it on my system over samba, it still lokks weird, but over scp looks fine. Well... Thank you. – enpap-x Mar 03 '19 at 01:39
I guess it is because Windows doesn't like the ':' in the filenames and interprets them in a different way. – accdias Mar 03 '19 at 01:40
I am using Manjaro – enpap-x Mar 03 '19 at 01:41
Check this page out: . It explains those weird filenames you see when browsing through samba. – accdias Mar 03 '19 at 01:45
And here you have the solution for the Samba problem: . – accdias Mar 03 '19 at 01:49
Thank you. I don't think i can say that it helps... Now the files are not showing at all (Thunar - file manager). It's fine, as long as i don't transffer the files through samba. – enpap-x Mar 03 '19 at 01:57

Renaming files os.rename() to timestamps returns weird string

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