Need some help creating a script to rename text files and move them to a directory

Question

I have recently managed to convince my mother to let me switch her PC to Ubuntu, and to make her transition easier I want to automate as many tasks as possible for her. I managed to do quite a bit, however there is a script I'd like to leave her with, but, unfortunately I have no knowledge of scripting.

The purpose would be to rename all text files in a folder (mainly Desktop) named e.g. "note*" (w/out extension) as "note.txt" (for interoperability's sake and easy upload to google docs) and move them in a specially designated folder. The commands I'd need would be:

- find files in current folder named note* (and not ending in .txt) and rename them as note*.txt
- move files named note*.txt to /home/username/notes

Unfortunately I don't know how to put it in script form so I'm asking for help.

Answer 1

This might get you started:

#!/bin/bash

find . -name 'note*' -not -name '*txt' -exec mv -bf '{}' '{}'.txt \;
find . -name 'note*.txt' -exec mv -bf '{}' /home/username/notes/ \;

The -bf makes mv not asking questions and backup if overwriting.

Answer 2

Open up a terminal, and open up a text editor using this command (gedit, or your favourite!)

gedit ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/Notes

This will open up a file in the Nautilus (file browser) Scripts folder for some magic that you will see soon :D
Now copy the following simplified code into gedit and save. (You can use Marcelo Morales if you want :P)

#!/bin/bash

# Words prefixed with a hash are comments.

# Save directory. Add in your own username and directory here.
movePath=/home/<username>/notes

# Iterate over files in current folder.
for noteFile in **
do
# Check if is a notes file (even if UPPERCASE or lowercase), and not already edited.
    if [[ ${noteFile,,} == *"notes"* ]] && [[ ${noteFile,,} != *".txt" ]] && [[ ! -d "$noteFile" ]]
    then
        # If so, move and rename the file to your save directory.
        mv "$noteFile" "$movePath/$noteFile.txt"
    fi
done

Give the script executable permissions.

chmod u+x ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/Notes

Now, to see the magic of Nautilus Scripts.
Right click in a folder with a "notes" file or two within, go to Scripts and then click "Notes" and you'll magically see all of your "notes" files turn to "notes*.txt"

How much more mother friendly can you get? :P

Answer 3

This will handle filenames safely.

#!/bin/bash
shopt -s extglob  # see http://mywiki.wooledge.org/glob

for file in note!(*.txt); do
    mv -i "$file" "$HOME/notes/$file.txt"
done
mv -i note*.txt "$HOME/notes/"

If you want to case-insensitive match, also enable the nocaseglob shell option.

shopt -s extglob nocaseglob

EDIT: Another approach

#!/bin/bash
for file in note*; do
    # Make sure it's a regular file and not the destination directory
    [[ -f $file && ! $file -ef $HOME/notes ]] || continue
    mv -i "$file" "$HOME/notes/${file%.[Tt][Xx][Tt]}.txt"
done

Answer 4

Updated version: as per helpful suggestions by geirha.

I got rid of the array, which was quite unnecessary,
and made changes to how and which globs are set/unset.
The original version is still included; (for comparison)

################################################
cd ~/ # create sample files with embedded spaces 
touch note\ {1..3}
################################################
#  
tdir="$HOME/notes"; # make target dir
[[ ! -d "$tdir" ]] && mkdir -p "$tdir"
#  
shopt -q nullglob; Xnullglob=$? # state of nullglob  
shopt -s nullglob                 # enable nullglob
shopt -s extglob                  # enable  extglob
#  
for f in note!(*.txt) ; do
  if [[ -f $f ]] ; then
     mv -i "$f" "$tdir/$f.txt"
  fi 
done
#  
((Xnullglob==1)) &&  shopt -u nullglob # Reset nullglob 
#

---

Original version (with extra cruft):

cd ~/ 
# create some sample files with embedded spaces
touch note\ {1..3}
#  
tdir="$HOME/notes";   # make target dir if not present
[[ ! -d "$tdir" ]] && mkdir -p "$tdir"
#  
state=($(shopt extglob)) # Save extended globbing state  
[[ ${state[1]} == off ]] &&  shopt -s extglob
#  
farray=( note!(*.txt) )  # Build an array of filenames
fcount=${#farray[@]}     # Get size of the array
#  
for ((findex=0; findex<fcount; findex++));do
  if [[ -f "${farray[findex]}" ]] ; then
     echo -e $findex "${farray[findex]}"    
     mv -i "${farray[findex]}" \
     "$tdir/${farray[findex]}.txt"
  fi 
done
#  
[[ ${state[1]} == off ]] &&  shopt -u extglob # Reset extglob 
#  
# `mv -i` will interactively check with you before overwiting and existing file.
#  You can use `mv -bf` to backup an existing file before overwriting it.

Answer 5

for noteFile in note*[^.txt]; do mv $noteFile /home/username/notes/$noteFile.txt; done

I like that answer better :) The only drawback is that it only moves files it has renamed