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bashcygwinmv

Eliminate spaces in filename and rename (cywgin)

I use cygwin on top of windows. I have a windows file that contains files with spaces. I want to get rid of the spaces between the characters and rename the files.

IMG_4089 - Copy - Copy.JPG
IMG_4089 - Copy.JPG
IMG_4092 - Copy - Copy.JPG
IMG_4092 - Copy (2).JPG
IMG_4092 - Copy.JPG
IMG_4093 - Copy - Copy.JPG
IMG_4093 - Copy (2).JPG
IMG_4093 - Copy.JPG

usually the mv command in bash works in linux

$ cat get_rid_of_spaces.sh
#!/bin/bash

IFS=$'\n' ;

for i in *
do
        jay=$i ;
        jay2=$(echo $i | sed -e "s/ //g")
        echo $jay2 "--->" $jay
        mv $jay2 $jay
        sleep .5 ;
done

However I keep getting these errors.

IMG_4089-Copy-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4089 - Copy - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4089-Copy-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4089-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4089 - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4089-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory


IMG_4092-Copy-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4092 - Copy - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4092-Copy-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4092-Copy(2).JPG ---> IMG_4092 - Copy (2).JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4092-Copy(2).JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4092-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4092 - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4092-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4093-Copy-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4093 - Copy - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4093-Copy-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4093-Copy(2).JPG ---> IMG_4093 - Copy (2).JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4093-Copy(2).JPG': No such file or directory

IMG_4093-Copy.JPG ---> IMG_4093 - Copy.JPG
mv: cannot stat 'IMG_4093-Copy.JPG': No such file or directory
Solution

  • Solution

    Swap $jay and $jay2. The mv command uses the first argument as the source and the second argument as the destination:

    mv sourceFile destinationFile

    Don't forget to quote, since you have spaces:

    mv "$jay" "$jay2"

    Alternative

    If you have rename installed, you can replace your script with the following command:

    rename 's/ //g' *

    The s/ //g means substitute (s) space (/ /) with the empty string (//) globally (g).
    The wildcard * specfies the files to be renamed, that is all files in the working directory.