Create new file but add number if filename already exists in bash - linux

Question

I found similar questions but not in Linux/Bash
I want my script to create a file with a given name (via user input) but add number at the end if filename already exists.
Example:
$ create somefile
Created "somefile.ext"
$ create somefile
Created "somefile-2.ext"

Answer 1

The following script can help you. You should not be running several copies of the script at the same time to avoid race condition.
name=somefile
if [[ -e $name.ext || -L $name.ext ]] ; then
i=0
while [[ -e $name-$i.ext || -L $name-$i.ext ]] ; do
let i++
done
name=$name-$i
fi
touch -- "$name".ext

Answer 2

Easier:
touch file`ls file* | wc -l`.ext
You'll get:
$ ls file*
file0.ext file1.ext file2.ext file3.ext file4.ext file5.ext file6.ext

Answer 3

To avoid the race conditions:
name=some-file
n=
set -o noclobber
until
file=$name${n:+-$n}.ext
{ command exec 3> "$file"; } 2> /dev/null
do
((n++))
done
printf 'File is "%s"\n' "$file"
echo some text in it >&3
And in addition, you have the file open for writing on fd 3.
With bash-4.4+, you can make it a function like:
create() { # fd base [suffix [max]]]
local fd="$1" base="$2" suffix="${3-}" max="${4-}"
local n= file
local - # ash-style local scoping of options in 4.4+
set -o noclobber
REPLY=
until
file=$base${n:+-$n}$suffix
eval 'command exec '"$fd"'> "$file"' 2> /dev/null
do
((n++))
((max > 0 && n > max)) && return 1
done
REPLY=$file
}
To be used for instance as:
create 3 somefile .ext || exit
printf 'File: "%s"\n' "$REPLY"
echo something >&3
exec 3>&- # close the file
The max value can be used to guard against infinite loops when the files can't be created for other reason than noclobber.
Note that noclobber only applies to the > operator, not >> nor <>.
Remaining race condition
Actually, noclobber does not remove the race condition in all cases. It only prevents clobbering regular files (not other types of files, so that cmd > /dev/null for instance doesn't fail) and has a race condition itself in most shells.
The shell first does a stat(2) on the file to check if it's a regular file or not (fifo, directory, device...). Only if the file doesn't exist (yet) or is a regular file does 3> "$file" use the O_EXCL flag to guarantee not clobbering the file.
So if there's a fifo or device file by that name, it will be used (provided it can be open in write-only), and a regular file may be clobbered if it gets created as a replacement for a fifo/device/directory... in between that stat(2) and open(2) without O_EXCL!
Changing the
{ command exec 3> "$file"; } 2> /dev/null
to
[ ! -e "$file" ] && { command exec 3> "$file"; } 2> /dev/null
Would avoid using an already existing non-regular file, but not address the race condition.
Now, that's only really a concern in the face of a malicious adversary that would want to make you overwrite an arbitrary file on the file system. It does remove the race condition in the normal case of two instances of the same script running at the same time. So, in that, it's better than approaches that only check for file existence beforehand with [ -e "$file" ].
For a working version without race condition at all, you could use the zsh shell instead of bash which has a raw interface to open() as the sysopen builtin in the zsh/system module:
zmodload zsh/system
name=some-file
n=
until
file=$name${n:+-$n}.ext
sysopen -w -o excl -u 3 -- "$file" 2> /dev/null
do
((n++))
done
printf 'File is "%s"\n' "$file"
echo some text in it >&3

Answer 4

Try something like this
name=somefile
path=$(dirname "$name")
filename=$(basename "$name")
extension="${filename##*.}"
filename="${filename%.*}"
if [[ -e $path/$filename.$extension ]] ; then
i=2
while [[ -e $path/$filename-$i.$extension ]] ; do
let i++
done
filename=$filename-$i
fi
target=$path/$filename.$extension

Answer 5

Use touch or whatever you want instead of echo:
echo file$((`ls file* | sed -n 's/file\([0-9]*\)/\1/p' | sort -rh | head -n 1`+1))
Parts of expression explained:
list files by pattern: ls file*
take only number part in each line: sed -n 's/file\([0-9]*\)/\1/p'
apply reverse human sort: sort -rh
take only first line (i.e. max value): head -n 1
combine all in pipe and increment (full expression above)

Answer 6

Try something like this (untested, but you get the idea):
filename=$1
# If file doesn't exist, create it
if [[ ! -f $filename ]]; then
touch $filename
echo "Created \"$filename\""
exit 0
fi
# If file already exists, find a similar filename that is not yet taken
digit=1
while true; do
temp_name=$filename-$digit
if [[ ! -f $temp_name ]]; then
touch $temp_name
echo "Created \"$temp_name\""
exit 0
fi
digit=$(($digit + 1))
done
Depending on what you're doing, replace the calls to touch with whatever code is needed to create the files that you are working with.

Answer 7

This is a much better method I've used for creating directories incrementally.
It could be adjusted for filename too.
LAST_SOLUTION=$(echo $(ls -d SOLUTION_[[:digit:]][[:digit:]][[:digit:]][[:digit:]] 2> /dev/null) | awk '{ print $(NF) }')
if [ -n "$LAST_SOLUTION" ] ; then
mkdir SOLUTION_$(printf "%04d\n" $(expr ${LAST_SOLUTION: -4} + 1))
else
mkdir SOLUTION_0001
fi

Answer 8

A simple repackaging of choroba's answer as a generalized function:
autoincr() {
f="$1"
ext=""
# Extract the file extension (if any), with preceeding '.'
[[ "$f" == *.* ]] && ext=".${f##*.}"
if [[ -e "$f" ]] ; then
i=1
f="${f%.*}";
while [[ -e "${f}_${i}${ext}" ]]; do
let i++
done
f="${f}_${i}${ext}"
fi
echo "$f"
}
touch "$(autoincr "somefile.ext")"

Answer 9

without looping and not use regex or shell expr.
last=$(ls $1* | tail -n1)
last_wo_ext=$($last | basename $last .ext)
n=$(echo $last_wo_ext | rev | cut -d - -f 1 | rev)
if [ x$n = x ]; then
n=2
else
n=$((n + 1))
fi
echo $1-$n.ext
more simple without extension and exception of "-1".
n=$(ls $1* | tail -n1 | rev | cut -d - -f 1 | rev)
n=$((n + 1))
echo $1-$n.ext