Removing spaces from a batch of filenames

[Mark Hobley]

I am using the Almquist Shell (sh).

What is the most simple way to strip spaces from a batch of files in a
directory.

For example:

"your file 1.txt" should be renamed "yourfile1.txt".

There are a couple of thousand files that need renaming.

I have found a perl script, but I want to do this without invoking perl or
bash.

I also would like a modified version of the same script that removes underscores.
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Mark Hobley
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[Chris F.A. Johnson]

Post by Mark Hobley
I am using the Almquist Shell (sh).

I assume that is the shell usually called ash and that it is a
POSIX shell.

Post by Mark Hobley
What is the most simple way to strip spaces from a batch of files in a
directory.
"your file 1.txt" should be renamed "yourfile1.txt".
There are a couple of thousand files that need renaming.
I have found a perl script, but I want to do this without invoking perl or
bash.
I also would like a modified version of the same script that removes underscores.

From Chapter 3 of my book, "Shell Scripting Recipes", this
function substitutes all instances of a pattern with a
replacement string. If the replacement string is empty, it has
the effect of deleting the pattern:

_gsub()
{
## clear variable in case of failure
_GSUB=

## assign the string to sr2
sr2=$1

## return an error if there is no pattern specified
[ -z "$2" ] && return 1

## assign the search pattern to s_srch
s_srch=${2}

## assign the replacement text, if any, to rep
rep=$3

## sr1 will hold the portion of the string that has been processed
sr1=

## loop until sr2 no longer contains the search pattern
while :
do
case $sr2 in
*$s_srch*)

## add the string up to the match,
## and the replacement text, to sr1
sr1=$sr1${sr2%%$s_srch*}$rep

## remove up to the match from sr2
sr2=${sr2#*$s_srch}
;;
*) break ;;
esac
done
_GSUB=$sr1$sr2
}


The bash/ksh93 version of that function is:

_gsub() {
_GSUB=${1//$2/$3}
}


To remove all the spaces and rename the file:

file="your file 1.txt"
_gsub "$file" " " ""
mv "$file" "$_GSUB"


If the shell ios a Bourne shell, and doesn't have POSIX parameter
expansion, you would nornally use an external command such as tr or
sed:

newname=`echo "$file" | tr -d " "`
mv "$file" "$newname"


But is can be done in the shell itself if the name contains no
wildcard characters:

newname=`
set -- $file
for w
do
echo "$w\c" ## In some shells: echo -n "$w"
done`
mv "$file" "$newname"

[kermit]

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
[...]

Post by Chris F.A. Johnson
_gsub() {
_GSUB=${1//$2/$3}
}

add zsh to the list

=arvi=

[Alan Connor]

On comp.unix.shell, in

Post by Mark Hobley
I am using the Almquist Shell (sh).
What is the most simple way to strip spaces from a batch of
files in a directory.
"your file 1.txt" should be renamed "yourfile1.txt".
There are a couple of thousand files that need renaming.
I have found a perl script, but I want to do this without
invoking perl or bash.
I also would like a modified version of the same script that
removes underscores.

That's easy. Fix your obnoxious signature and I'll be happy to
show you how.

What's this, the 4th time you have been asked to conform to the
Netiquette guidelines?

Just why do you imagine that you are above the standards that the
rest of us conform to?

Or is it that you don't even bother to look over the posts on
whatever newsgroup you are posting on at present?

Maybe that's why you are asking questions that have been
answered a thousand times on this group and is basic in the
_extreme_, and are a part of the FAQ.

So you are both arrogant and lazy. No surprise there: These
qualities often go hand-in-hand.

Post by Mark Hobley
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OOOOO: OOOOOOOOOO OO OOOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO
OOOO://OOOOOOOOOO.OO.OOO/

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