[SOLVED] Find and replace quotes with underscores in file names

Question

I was looking to replace all of the quotes in file names in a directory with underscores.  I seem to be having a problem doing so, though.  Running the find command:
find . -name '*[\`\'\"]*' -exec sh -c "mv -i '$0' '${0//[\`\'\"]/_}'" {} \;
I get a > inviting me to continue the command.  What am I doing wrong?
Last edited by gogi-goji (2010-01-03 02:19:13)

Answer 1

@lolilolicon: yeah the -exec part does give another level of quotes, so you can run into trouble with scripts inside -exec.
I didn't know you could give {} as an argument after sh -c and $0, that solves the problem of not knowing which quotes to use around it in the -exec part.
$ find -mindepth 1 -exec sh -c 'mv -v --backup=t "$0" "$(echo "$0" | sed s/[\\x27\"\`]/___/g)"' {} \;
mv: `./a b' and `./a b' are the same file
`./\'' -> `./___'
`./\'"\'' -> `./_________'
mv: `./$0' and `./$0' are the same file
mv: `./a' and `./a' are the same file
mv: `./$(echo crash)' and `./$(echo crash)' are the same file
`./"' -> `./___' (backup: `./___.~1~')
`./\'\'\'' -> `./_________' (backup: `./_________.~1~')
Or with the other substitution method, it doesn't interpret \x27 (you could use $(echo -e \\x27) or you have to use ...'\\\''...
$ find -mindepth 1 -exec sh -c 'echo mv -v --backup=t "$0" "${0//['\\\''\"\`]/___}"' {} \;
$ find -mindepth 1 -exec sh -c 'echo mv -v --backup=t "$0" "${0//[$(echo -e \\x27)\"\`]/___}"' {} \;
mv -v --backup=t ./a b ./a b
mv -v --backup=t ./' ./___
mv -v --backup=t ./___ ./___
mv -v --backup=t ./'"' ./_________
mv -v --backup=t ./$0 ./$0
mv -v --backup=t ./___.~1~ ./___.~1~
mv -v --backup=t ./a ./a
mv -v --backup=t ./$(echo crash) ./$(echo crash)
mv -v --backup=t ./_________ ./_________
mv -v --backup=t ./" ./___
mv -v --backup=t ./''' ./_________
mv -v --backup=t ./_________.~1~ ./_________.~1~