使用mv重命名bash脚本中的文件

Question

I recovered many MOV files from a faulty hard drive however software named these files as per block location:

263505816.mov etc...

I wrote a small script that uses mediainfo application so i can read date and time created and rename files accordingly:

for f in *.mov
do
    MODIFIED=$(mediainfo -f $f |grep -m 1 "Encoded date" |sort -u |awk -F "UTC " '{print $2}')
    DATECREATED=$(echo $MODIFIED |cut -d' ' -f 1)
    TIMECREATED=$(echo $MODIFIED |cut -d' ' -f 2 |tr -s ':' '-')

    mv $f "$DATECREATED $TIMECREATED.mov"

done

Which works fine but when i modify mv statement by adding 2 words at the end:

mv $f "$DATECREATED $TIMECREATED Holidays 2011.mov"

i get the following:

mv: target â  Holidays 2011.movâ is not a directory

I know i have to mark white spaces is some way because mv is mislead that it's a directory. Other articles do not mention using multiple variable in conjunction with mv that is why im asking for guidance.

Many thanks,

Answer 1

I think it worked the first time because *.mov expanded only to numeric files like the one in your example, but after the first execution of your script, it renamed the files introducing spaces in the form $DATECREATED $TIMECREATED.mov . Basically, the second time around, mv is attempting to move $DATECREATED and $TIMECREATED.mov to your target file, and since it's not a directory, it fails.

You can solve this by quoting $f . Try it like this:

mv "$f" "$DATECREATED $TIMECREATED Holidays 2011.mov"

In fact, it's recommended that you always quote variables unless you're sure they won't contain special characters.

Answer 2

Before the $DATECREATED and after the .mov you have some characters that look like double quotes but are not so, my guess. Some typographic quotes. Try replacing with normal double quotes " . - in addition to the suggestion to also quote "$f" (with the right double quotes ;-)