Remove prefix from a LIST of files in bash

Question

I have a list of files with a common name pattern, all with the same structure (prefix ave.):

ave.20050716-12:00:00.stat_profiles.nc 
ave.20050816-12:00:00.stat_profiles.nc  
ave.20081116-00:00:00.stat_profiles.nc  
ave.20120215-12:00:00.stat_profiles.nc
ave.19990316-12:00:00.stat_profiles.nc  
ave.20020616-00:00:00.stat_profiles.nc

My question is: How do I remove ave. from all the files in a file list / folder?

@Corion, I'm sorry, I really don't know how to apply it to my concrete solution. I'm completely new at this! — PEBKAC, Oct 25 '18 at 14:30
Then work through the parts of the answer I linked, try them, and maybe ask us with a concrete failing example where it fails to work. — Corion, Oct 25 '18 at 14:31

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 25 '18 at 14:51

3

You can use a for loop and string substitution

for file in ave.*
do 
    mv "$file" "${file#ave.}"
done

This is just an example to get you started and you should check for things such as already existing files with the name without "ave.".

edited Oct 25 '18 at 14:51

tripleee

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answered Oct 25 '18 at 14:31

Alex M

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 25 '18 at 14:33

If you have the rename utility from the util-linux package available, it makes this kind of task very easy.

From its man :

  rename [options] expression replacement file...
rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of expression in their name by replacement.

So in your case :

rename ave. '' ave.*

Remove prefix from a LIST of files in bash

2 Answers2