Changing a multiple file extension using single line command

Question

I have some files whose names contain multiple extensions:

$ ls -r
File1_345.R.12345
File1_3.234.R.6789
File1_2345.R.2345
File1_12345.R.12345
$

I want to rename them to remove all the existing extensions and replace them with .txt. Output should be below:

$ ls -r
File1_345.txt
File1_3.txt
File1_2345.txt
File1_12345.txt

Is it possible to use find and xargs command?

What happens in the situation of another file named File1_2345.R.1234? Why does the command need to be on a single line? — Jeff Schaller
– Jeff Schaller ♦, Commented Aug 14, 2018 at 1:00

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-16 04:15:03Z

7

If you want to remove all extensions (everything after the first dot) from each filename, do

$ for f in *
do
    mv -- "$f" "${f%%.*}.txt"
done

Of course, if you really want to do this in one line, just collapse the above to

$ for f in *; do mv -- "$f" "${f%%.*}.txt"; done

answered Aug 13, 2018 at 21:20

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Ole Tange · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-14 21:50:14Z

1

You can do it with GNU Parallel:

find ... | parallel mv {} '{=s/\..*//=}'.txt

answered Aug 14, 2018 at 21:50

Ole Tange

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PlasmaBinturong · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-20 12:38:39Z

0

For this kind of task, I would highly recommend using the rename tool (e.g. by Larry Wall in Ubuntu):

rename --verbose 's/\..*$/.txt/' File*
# replaces everything after the first dot.

or with a more specific regex: 's/\.R\.[0-9]+$/.txt/'

answered Jul 20, 2022 at 12:38

PlasmaBinturong

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3 Answers 3