Rename a sequence of files.

Often a sequence files is written with file names which create issues for other programs, like files written as file_1.0 file_1.5 file_2.0. A simple bash script can be used to rename the files. The bash scripts described here are meant to be saved into a file, like rename_files.sh , and executed with bash: bash rename_files.sh

Padding numbers

If your files are of the format file1 file2 ... file99 ... you can pad the numbers with 0:

for old in file*; do
    # Extract the number at the end of the file name.
    number=${old/file/}
    # Create the new number string with the right format, i.e. 0 padding.
    num_str=$(printf %04d $number)
    # Move the old file to the new file.
    cp $old file$num_str
done

The result will be a sequence of files with the names file0001 file0002 ... file0099 ...

Remove any number padding

If your files are of the format file0001 file0002 ... file0099 ... you can remove the padding:

for old in file*; do
    # Extract the number at the end of the file name.
    number=${old/file/}
    # Create the new number string with the right format, i.e. no 0 padding.
    num_str=$((10#${number}))
    # Move the old file to the new file.
    cp $old file$num_str
done

The result will be a sequence of files with the names file1 file2 ... file99 ...

Change a file sequence with float numbers into a sequence with integers

If your files are of the format file_1.0 file_1.5 ... you can change them into a simple sequence:

i=0
for old in file*.*; do
    # Extract the number at the end of the file name.
    number=${old//file/}
    # Create the new number string with the right format, i.e. 0 padding.
    num_str=$(printf %04d $i)
    # Move the old file to the new file.
    cp $old file$num_str
    i=$(($i+1))
done

The result will be a sequence of files with the names file0001 file0002 ... file0099 ...

References

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO-12.html