How can I remove leading numbers from filenames using prename?

Question

I have many files like these

0678 - Puzzle Series Vol. 5 - Slither Link (J).nds
0679 - Puzzle Series Vol. 6 - Illust Logic (J).nds
0680 - Puzzle Series Vol. 7 - Crossword 2 (J).nds

and would like remove the leading four digit numbers and the dash, so they become

Puzzle Series Vol. 5 - Slither Link (J).nds
Puzzle Series Vol. 6 - Illust Logic (J).nds
Puzzle Series Vol. 7 - Crossword 2 (J).nds

When I try with prename I get

$ prename -i 's/???? - (.+nds)/$1/' *nds
Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/? <-- HERE ??? - (.+nds)/ at (eval 1) line 1.

Question

Can someone see what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

? doesn't mean what you think it means. It means the previous atom is optional. For example /^ab?\\z/ matches a and ab .

Use . to match any character except a line feed. /s makes . any character, period.

s/.... - (.+nds)/$1/

s/.{4} - (.+nds)/$1/          # Readability improvement.

s/.{4} - (.+nds)/$1/s         # No need to prevent `.` from matching a LF.

s/^.{4} - (.+nds)/$1/s        # Better to anchor for readability if nothing else.

s/^\d{4} - (.+nds)/$1/s       # A bit more restrictive, and more self-documenting.

s/^\d+ - (.+nds)/$1/s         # Do we really need to check that there are exactly 4?

s/^\d+ - (.*)/$1/s            # No point in checking if `nds` is contained.

s/^\d+ - //