mv No such file or directory? renaming files in multiple directories

Question

This is partly because I have a very shallow understanding of BASH.

Here is the script:

eighteen=(2018*/*)
newe=`echo "$eighteen" | sed -e 's/\(-\)*$//g'`

while read f <&3 && read nf <&4; do     
    mv -v "${f}" "${nf}"
    break
done 3<"$eighteen" 4<"$newe"

I am trying to compensate the lousy script I wrote, and delete - symbol at the end of each filename in multiple subfolders.

and the error I get: ./cleanup.sh: line 16: 2018-08-13/untitled-102.arw: No such file or directory

It is worth to note, that the error comes not from mv line, but from this: done 3<"$eighteen" 4<"$newe".

I copied the while loop from the answer on StackExchange. Quick food, usually, is not good for digestion, and quick solutions - for understanding, please help me to understand. Give me a hint on how previously mentioned substitution 4<"$newe" nf <&4 is called, how should I search to learn more about it. Is it applied outside while statement context?

Answer 1

You seems to use a plain buggy shell script where you can just use the proper tool, keeping your regex:

rename -n 's/-*$//' 2018*/*

Remove -n switch when the output looks good to rename for real.

man rename

There are other tools with the same name which may or may not be able to do this, so be careful.

The rename command that is part of the util-linux package, won't.

If you run the following command:

$ rename

and you see perlexpr, then this seems to be the right tool =)

If not, to make it the default (usually already the case) on Debian and derivative like Ubuntu :

$ sudo apt install rename
$ sudo update-alternatives --set rename /usr/bin/file-rename

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For archlinux:

pacman -S perl-rename

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For RedHat-family distros:

yum install prename

The 'prename' package is in the EPEL repository.

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For Gentoo:

emerge dev-perl/rename

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For *BSD:

pkg install gprename

or p5-File-Rename

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For Mac users:

brew install rename

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If you don't have this command with another distro, search your package manager to install it or do it manually (no deps...)

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_{^{This tool was originally written by Larry Wall, the Perl's dad.}}