Batch Files Rename sorted by date

Question

I have folders I upload files to, with 1,000-20,000 files of different kinds (pdf, jpg, wmv...etc) with different file names and lengths with spaces in the names, etc.

I am trying make a script to rename them on a regular basis, but I want them sorted by "oldest date first", and the new name will be in the format of YYYT000001.xxxx ... YYYY036242.xxxx (where YYYY is a fixed text "Jan" or Dec" (I will enter it manually in the script), and xxxx is the original file extension).

I've tried to use the input for i in $(ls -tr) as it will be sorted by oldest date, and tried to replace the file names using basename $i, etc.

I have searched the net but my thick head could not come up with a working script.

Related question: Better way to rename files based on multiple patterns. — Michaël Le Barbier
– Michaël Le Barbier, Commented Aug 31, 2014 at 23:12

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:27:44Z

1

Using what they say in this question and this blog post, you just move the file like this:

#!/bin/bash
prefix="YYY"
i=0
for file in $(ls -tr)
do
    filename=$(basename "$file")
    extension="${filename##*.}"
    paddedIndex=$(printf "%06d" $i)
    mv $file ${prefix}${paddedIndex}.${extension}
    i=$(($i + 1))
done

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:27

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 16, 2012 at 6:05

mgarciaisaia

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2 Comments

Lo Lo Over a year ago

awesome, it worked, but it can not handle spaces in the old file name.. many thanks "desert69"

rosshjb Over a year ago

@LoLo while IFS= read -r line; do echo "$line"; done <<< $(ls -rt files/)

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