Re: find and replace

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Author: Michael Havens
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: find and replace
so you tell it:

rename 's(earch)/string/(replace)string/' file(s to rename)

    rename [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] perlexpr [ files ]


so the perlexpression is what is in the single quotes?
I think I understand!
:-)~MIKE~(-:


On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Dazed_75 <> wrote:

> The *.JPG is the set of files for which to do the rename.
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Michael Havens <> wrote:
>
>> So the full string I was given is:
>>
>>    rename 's/\.JPG$/.jpg/' *.JPG

>>
>> So what does the *.JPG do? If you 's(earch)/string/(replace)string' then
>> what is the need for *JPG?
>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Paul Mooring <> wrote:
>>
>>> When you do search and replace, the replace section is literal not a
>>> pattern match. So piece by piece:
>>> s/ # This means match the first section and replace with the second
>>> \.JPG$/ # This means a literal '.' at any point in the string followed
>>> by 'JPG' then the end of the line
>>> .jpg/ # This is the string to replace the previous regex with '.jpg'
>>> --
>>> Paul Mooring
>>> Systems Engineer and Customer Advocate
>>>
>>> www.opscode.com
>>>
>>> From: Michael Havens <>
>>> Reply-To: Main discussion list <>
>>> Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:42 AM
>>> To: Main discussion list <>
>>> Subject: Re: find and replace
>>>
>>> Hate to resurrect old stuff but in
>>>
>>>     rename 's/\.JPG$/.jpg/' *.JPG

>>>
>>> is this saying to s(earch)/(for the string).JPG$/(replace with).jpg/ ?
>>> Why does one not need the escape character (\) before the period here or
>>> before the final JPG? What does the *.JPG at the end signify?
>>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 7:32 AM, Sam Kreimeyer <>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Here's a pdf of a quick guide to regular expressions
>>>>
>>>> http://www.addedbytes.com/download/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet-v1/pdf/
>>>>
>>>> Basically, it's a format for defining search patterns that supports
>>>> special meanings for certain characters. For instance:
>>>>
>>>> a - finds any string like "a"
>>>> a. - finds any string like "a" plus any other character except a new
>>>> line (matches "aa", "ab", "ac", etc)
>>>> a.* - finds any string like "a" plus zero or more characters except a
>>>> new line (matches "aa", "abcdefghijk")
>>>> Other special characters can further modify this behavior.
>>>>
>>>> So here's an explanation of the earlier command.
>>>>
>>>> 's/\.JPG$/.jpg/' *.JPG
>>>>
>>>> Basic search and replace format s/[string we search for]/[string to
>>>> replace matches with]/
>>>>
>>>> "\.JPG$" - Because "." is special, we escape it with "\" to keep the
>>>> regex from interpreting it, so the "." will be treated literally. "JPG" is
>>>> what we're looking for. Placing a "$" at the end of the string tells the
>>>> regex to match the string only at the end of the strings you're searching.
>>>> This means that you will match "example.JPG" but not "JPG.example".
>>>>
>>>> ".jpg" - This is our replacement string. This is what goes in the place
>>>> of every match we find.
>>>>
>>>> "*.JPG" - while this isn't part of the regex, "*" is a wildcard (can be
>>>> substituted for any number of characters).
>>>>
>>>> Hope that helps!
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>
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