Find and replace string in directory names

Question

I have a file structure that I had to recover and it contains :2f in the name

For example directory name anyname:2fmorename

I want to be able to change :2f to _ in all directories and sub directories.

I thinking something like

find . -name *:2f* -type d -execdir mv{} *_* \;

But I can not figure out for sure.

be careful if you use find, to use -depth, or else you may rename a parent directory before finding a child one — Jeff Schaller
– Jeff Schaller ♦, Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 15:23
If you ever want to test something like your proposed find command, there's nothing stopping you using echo mv instead of mv. — Chris Davies
– Chris Davies, Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 23:46

hschou · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-11 15:22:24Z

6

If you have the Perl rename installed you can do it with this:

find . -name '*:2f*' -type d -exec rename 's/:2f/_/g' {} \;

If you want to test it first then add an echo:

find . -name '*:2f*' -type d -exec echo rename 's/:2f/_/g' {} \;

answered Jul 11, 2017 at 15:22

hschou

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heemayl · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-13 03:39:30Z

4

Thanks I ended up getting it to work using the following:

find /path -depth -type d -name '*:2f*' -execdir bash -c 'mv -v "$1" "${1//:2f/_}"' _ {} \;

heemayl

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answered Jul 13, 2017 at 1:09

Bill

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2 Answers 2