how to avoid space in filename?

Question

I have a bunch of files which need to be converted from .mp4 to .mpeg.one. A friend of mine had suggested me this simple script. However it doesn't work because filenames contain blank spaces.

Here is the script:

for f in $(ls *.mp4); do ffmpeg -i "$f".mp4 "$f".mprg; done

Answer 1

You don't need to use ls in this case. As a general rule, always try to use shell builtins and glob features instead of relying on external programs (e.g. ls) that can introduce problems with ugly workarounds.

Also, you shouldn't 'manually' append the extension to the input file name (the one you give to -i) and you should strip the extension on the output file.

So the command should be:

for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.mp4}".mprg; done

Answer 2

Instead of ls, you can use find -print0 and xargs -0:

find -name '*.mp4' -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 ffmpeg -i '{}' '{}'.mpeg

Followed by a rename afterwards:

rename s/mp4.mpeg$/mpeg/ *.mp4.mpeg

Answer 3

• No ls needed
• You probably mean .mpeg as extension
• If you place the " right, spaces won't be aproblem
• ffmpeg -i "$f".mp4 in your command will look for e.g. files.mp4.mp4, which you probably didn't mean
• Be aware that your output files will be named e.g. files.mp4.mpeg

Possible solution:

for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "$f".mpeg; done