Dynamically rename an XML File in Shell - linux

Question

I have an XML files named as *dmi_standard_load_B0001_set.xml* and I want to rename it dynamically by accepting a *batch_name* from user and change it to *dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml*.
How can I do that ? I tried the following command bt it throws error and doesn't work...
mv dmi_standard_load_*_set.xml dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml

Answer 1

So what is your typical batch name any spaces in it. If so you may need to put speech marks around the file name the 2nd bit. Worth echo $ batch_name aldo u could try load_$(echo $ $batch_name)_set.xml

Answer 2

Careful! You are using a * wildcard in your command. If you have multiple XML files in your directory, for instance :
dmi_standard_load_B0001_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0002_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0003_set.xml
your command will expand to this :
mv dmi_standard_load_B0001_set.xml dmi_standard_load_B0002_set.xml dmi_standard_load_B0003_set.xml dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml
and most likely, it will fail, telling you that the last argument is not a directory. So the first thing is, you want to loop through your files, like so :
for f in dmi_standard_load_*_set.xml
do
mv ${f} dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml
done
DO NOT RUN THAT CODE THOUGH! We're not finished. The problem here is that you're going to rename each of your XML files... to one and only one file. In effect, you'll end up with a file named dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml, with the contents of the last XML file that went through the loop.
You want the user to give a different batch name for each of these files, right? So you need to ask her for each file in your loop, with the read command :
for f in dmi_standard_load_*_set.xml
do
echo Please enter a batch name for file $f :
read batch_name
mv ${f} dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml
done
This will work, but there is no error checking... the user could just press the Enter key, giving an empty batch name. Here's a final version that makes sure the user gives a name :
for f in dmi_standard_load_*_set.xml
do
batch_name=
while [[ ${batch_name} == '' ]]
do
echo Please enter a batch name for file $f :
read batch_name
done
mv ${f} dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml
done

Answer 3

For example you can use this one-line script:
for file_name in *; do echo -ne "Renaming file \"${file_name}\" Enter batch_name: "; read batch_name; mv "${file_name}" "dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml"; done
this is example from my gentoo box:
user#host ~/test $ ls -1
dmi_standard_load_B0001_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0002_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0003_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0004_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_B0005_set.xml
user#host ~/test $ for file_name in *; do echo -ne "Renaming file \"${file_name}\" Enter batch_name: "; read batch_name; mv "${file_name}" "dmi_standard_load_${batch_name}_set.xml"; done
Renaming file "dmi_standard_load_B0001_set.xml" Enter batch_name: test
Renaming file "dmi_standard_load_B0002_set.xml" Enter batch_name: another test
Renaming file "dmi_standard_load_B0003_set.xml" Enter batch_name: and test again
Renaming file "dmi_standard_load_B0004_set.xml" Enter batch_name: four
Renaming file "dmi_standard_load_B0005_set.xml" Enter batch_name: last, five
user#host ~/test $ ls -1
dmi_standard_load_and test again_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_another test_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_four_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_last, five_set.xml
dmi_standard_load_test_set.xml
user#host ~/test $