NAME

pmv - rename files according to perl code

SYNOPSIS

pmv [-vqdmMrh] [-b startcode] [-e endcode] [--] 'perl code' <files...>

DESCRIPTION

pmv allows you to manipulate filenames based on arbitrary perl code. Think of it like perl -pe but operating on the filename instead of the file contents. It is useful for renaming large numbers of files according to arbitrary criteria.

In the code you write, $_ is set to the current filename, and you should change $_ to what you want the new filename to be. This enables you to write quick oneliners like:

        pmv 's/$/.bak/;' *

If you want more control, there are three variables defined:

$file: Same as $_, the filename passed in on the command line.
$path: The full pathname, without the filename.
$name: The filename, without any path components.

You can alter any of these variables to get the same effect as altering $_. Which to use is determined as follows:

1:: If $file has been altered, that is used.
2:: If $path or $name has been altered, they are joined together then used.
3:: Otherwise, $_ is used.

The file pmv-examples.sh contains useful example bourne shell functions that use pmv. This is available in the source distribution, and will probably be installed under /usr/share/doc/mp3-archive-tools/.

This file can be sourced by (using source or .) or included in one of your startup files (eg /etc/profile or $HOME/.bash_profile for bash(1) users.

OPTIONS

-v: Verbose.
-q: Quiet (no output). This is the default.
-d: Dry run. Shows how it would rename files without actually doing it.
-b startcode: Specifies perl code to run once before processing files. Useful for useing modules and doing one-time initialisation.
-e endcode: Specifies perl code to run once after processing files. Useful for summarising data gathered from filenames.
-m: If the pathname has been altered, create any necessary directories.
-r: If a file is moved out of a directory, remove any empty directories.
-M: Same as -m -r.
-h: Show a brief usage summary.
--: End of options.

AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS

If you have sourced pmv-examples.sh (see above>, the following functions are available:

pmv-stdswap: Swaps round fields in filenames delimited by " - ".
pmv-space2_: converts all spaces in filename to underscores.
pmv-_2space: Converts all underscores in filename to spaces.
pmv-fixcaps: Crude attempt at capitalising filenames.
pmv-fixcase: Much better attempt at capitalising filenames. This requires the Text::Autoformat module from CPAN (www.cpan.org).
pmv-number: Numbers filenames sequentially.
pmv-deepen: Converts directoriess from "artist - album" to "artist/album"
pmv-flatten: Converts directoriess from "artist/album" to "artist - album"
pmv-datestamp: Insert a datestamp in the form YYYYMMDD at the start of the filename. See below for more details.

EXAMPLES

Convert all whitespace in all mp3 filenames to underscores

 pmv 's/\s/_/g;' *.mp3

Convert the spelling of Color to Colour in all filenames

 pmv 's/Color/Colour/gi;' *

Swap round fields in mp3 filenames

 pmv '$name=~s/(.*) - (.*) - (.*) - (.*)(\..*)/$3 - $1 - $2 - $4$5/;' *.mp3

This would convert eg:

 Primal Scream - Screamadelica - 04 - Higher Than The Sun.mp3

to:

 04 - Primal Scream - Screamadelica - Higher Than The Sun.mp3

Crudely capitalise every word in all filenames

 pmv  '$name=join(" ",map({ucfirst(lc($_));} split(/\s+/,$name)));' *

See pmv-fixcase in pmv-examples.sh for a better way to capitalise filenames.

Add a datestamp to the start of all filenames

 pmv -b '$d=`date +%Y%d%m`;chomp($d);' '$name = "$d.$name";' *

This adds a datestamp in the form YYYYMMDD (eg 20031214) to the start of a filename. Files with datestamps in this form will sort in date order, which is useful for (e.g.) logfiles.

The -b code to get the date is run only once, before the files are processed.

If you wanted to make this into a shell function, callable by typing "pmv-datestamp files", you would insert the following into your startup files:

 function pmv-datestamp
 {
     pmv -b '$d=`date +%Y%d%m`;chomp($d);' '$name = "$d.$name";' "$@"
 }

BUGS

Rather similar (I recently discovered) to rename(1), which ships with perl. However, pmv provides several features that rename does not have, and the pmv- shell functions in pmv-examples.sh are useful, so I decided to add it to the mp3-archive-tools(1) package anyway.

AUTHOR

Ian Beckwith <ianb@nessie.mcc.ac.uk>

AVAILABILITY

pmv is part of the mp3-archive-tools package.

The latest version can be found at:

http://nessie.mcc.ac.uk/~ianb/projects/mp3-archive-tools/

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.