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For somewhat reason, my Ubuntu Mate 20.04 let me include * and other symbols apparently not valid for a filename or folder. But now I need to copy a lot of archives (like 15,000) to another PC. I don't know how to make a script for this, so I need help with it to let me rename everything inside a folder and the name of that folder also, example:

Folders:

701*math**2nd

100eng*1st


etc...

Archives:

800-task**201.xls

508-ok10*300.doc


etc...

I just need to remove the characters, exchanging the * for a _ or just remove the character from the name of file, because file manager doesn't let me copy them to an external HDD.

**EDIT: This worked! https://askubuntu.com/a/1302061/1661703

Raffa
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Silver
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    * is a perfectly valid character for file names (if you are using EXTx file system format). The only invalid characters are / and NUL. However, if you are trying to store files with * and other special characters not valid on an NTFS file system, then you have to replace these. For more info see this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1976007/what-characters-are-forbidden-in-windows-and-linux-directory-names – FedKad Jan 02 '23 at 16:42
  • I didnt know that, so in this case I need to remove these characters so I can copy them to a NTFS filesystem – Silver Jan 02 '23 at 16:48
  • If your external disk is just empty (that is, it will be used only to transfer files) and your target PC is also Linux, I would recommend formatting your external disk as EXT4 (and not NTFS or some variant of FAT). – FedKad Jan 02 '23 at 16:56
  • I need to transfer those files to a windows Pc, so I still need to convert them – Silver Jan 02 '23 at 17:02
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    This worked: https://askubuntu.com/a/1302061/1661703 – Silver Jan 02 '23 at 18:19
  • you could install Krusader with Krename, Tools, Search , save to listbox, then File, Multirename, Find and Replace, Add , * to _ ... what I cannot do is search, or filter the results, for only files with an * in them, though if all satisfy that, then select all to krenam, or select manually. one advantage here is being able to see the renames before applying them. – pierrely Jan 04 '23 at 08:42

1 Answers1

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You can use the rename command with recursive shell globbing from the parent directory containing all your directories and files that you need to be renamed like so:

shopt -s globstar
rename -n 'y/\*/_/' **/*
shopt -u globstar

Or (to avoid a Argument list is too long error) with find and rename from the same parent directory like so:

find -exec rename -n 'y/\*/_/' {} \+

The option -n is for dry-run … Remove it when satisfied with the output to do the actual renaming.

Additional raname syntax:

  • To change each multiple sequence of *(e.g. ** or *** etc.) to a single _, use:

    rename -n 's/[\*]+/_/g'

  • To match and substitute multiple different characters(e.g. *, ? and : etc.), use:

    rename -n 's/[\*\?\:]+/_/g'

  • To just remove the matching characters from the names, use empty substitution string like so:

    rename -n 's/[\*\?\:]+//g'

Notices:

  • Please notice that due to directories being renamed as well(if their names contain matching charackters e.g. *, ? or : etc.), some file paths already passed to rename as arguments might change during the process which will result in the error:

    Can't rename ...: No such file or directory

    preventing them from being renamed all at once so you need tor re-run the rename command until you get no errors anymore.

  • Please also notice that if two or more similar file/directory names share the same path and match different matching characters(e.g. file**one, file??one and file:one etc) then they will all be renamed to the same filename(e.g. file_one*) resulting in only the first name of its kind(*file/directory`) being renamed and the others will result in the error:

     ... not renamed: ... already exists

    Therefore, in which case you will need to change the substitution character/s in the rename command in order to rename those remaining files/directories e.g. double _ like so:

    rename -n 's/[\*\?\:]+/__/g'
Raffa
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  • I get an error: "Argument list is too long" – Silver Jan 02 '23 at 17:26
  • @Silver I updated the answer for that. – Raffa Jan 02 '23 at 17:35
  • @Silver I apologize ... There was an unintended mistake(typo) in the answer but now corrected ... I apologize again :-) – Raffa Jan 02 '23 at 19:02
  • The rename operation is a risky one. There is always a chance of name collision, because NTFS is case sensitive and you have to map more than one (forbidden) characters onto a single (_) character. Windows has also name restrictions on complete file / directory names. – FedKad Jan 03 '23 at 05:30
  • @FedKad Thank you for your feedback :-) Added your notes to the answer ... unfortunately as you know such a process can not simply and cleanly be done in one shot. – Raffa Jan 03 '23 at 07:57