I'm trying to write a script that allow the user to delete the prefix of a file, insert (append) a prefix, rename a prefix and rename the extension. So far all the options but i) work. Any suggestions how I can have bash insert a prefix to an existing file name ex.
(29.txt to burp29.txt) in the context of this script?

Thanks Pete

#!bash
clear

echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;33m RENAME FILES\033[0m" "\033[40;32m$PIXEL_SIZE \033[0m"
echo
echo
echo "******************************************"
echo "* Choose the correct Spots Method *"
echo "* ------------------------------- *"
echo "* *"
echo "* d)Delete text (burp29.txt to 29.txt) *"
echo "* *"
echo "* i)Insert text (29.txt to burp29.txt) *"
echo "* *"
echo "* f)rename filetext (29.txt to bur.txt) *"
echo "* *"
echo "* e)rename ext (29.txt to 29.xxx) *"
echo "* *"
echo "* x)it *"
echo "* *"
echo "******************************************"
echo;echo;echo;echo;echo;echo
echo
read job

################################################## ################################

if [ $job = d ]; then
clear
ls
echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER TEXT TO DELETE \033[0m"
read DEL
echo
null=""
if [ $DEL = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER TEXT:"
echo
echo
echo
exit 1
fi

array=($DEL*)
for file in ${array[@]};do
file1=${file//$DEL/}
mv $file $file1
done

exit 1

################################################## ################################

################################################## ################################
elif [ $job = i ]; then
clear
ls
EXT=*.*
echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER TEXT TO INSERT \033[0m"
read INS
echo
null=""
if [ $INS = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER TEXT:"
echo
echo
echo
exit 1
fi


array=($INS)
for file in ${array[@]};do
file1=${file//$INS/$EXT/}
mv $file $file1
done

exit 1


################################################## ################################
elif [ $job = f ]; then
clear
ls
echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER TEXT TO CHANGE \033[0m"
read TC
echo
null=""
if [ $TC = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER TEXT TO CHANGE:"
echo
echo
echo
fi

echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER TEXT TO CHANGE TO: \033[0m"
read TW
echo
null=""
if [ $TW = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER TEXT TO CHANGE TO:"
echo
echo
echo
exit 1
fi
array=($TC*)
for file in ${array[@]};do
file1=${file//$TC/$TW}
mv $file $file1
done

exit 1

################################################## ################################
elif [ $job = e ]; then
clear
ls
echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER EXT TO CHANGE (case sensitive): \033[0m"
read E1
echo
null=""
if [ $E1 = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER EXT TO CHANGE:"
echo
echo
echo
exit 1
fi

echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;32m ENTER EXT TO CHANGE TO (case sensitive): \033[0m"
read E2
echo
null=""
if [ $E2 = $null ]; then
echo
echo
echo
echo "ERROR: ENTER EXT TO CHANGE TO:"
echo
echo
echo
exit 1
fi



array=(*.$E1)
for file in ${array[@]};do
file1=${file//$E1/$E2}
mv $file $file1
done

exit 1
################################################## ################################
################################################## ###############################
elif [ $job = x ]; then
echo
echo -n -e "\033[40;31m RENAME ABORTED \033[0m"
echo
echo
exit 1
################################################## ################################
else
echo " "
echo "*** Pick either d, i, f, e or x***"
echo
fi


#EOF

Try this:

Nope that didn't seem to work either. Keeps saying Urinary expected or something like that...

The error you are getting is unrelated to the code I posted, try reviewing your logic, specially around this statement:

elif [ $job = i ]; then

because you have:

if [ $job = d ]; then
...blah...blah...
exit 1
fi
...more blah....
exit 1
elif ...

It is very doubtfull the job = i statement will ever be executed!

Also you may want to code your if statements like this:

if [[ "$job" == "i" ]]; then

Ok, the problem is I still can't insert any prefixes to files. Just simply then say I have 20 files called 1.tif, 2.tif, 3.tif etc and I wanted to write a simple script to add the prefix (bos) to all the *.tif files as in (bos1.tif, bos2.tif).

That might be the easiet way for me to work this problem out as I'm no Bash expert here.

Thanks...

Same coding:

Isn't 'array' just going to be a string in this instance? Using ${array[@]} in that case would simply split the array string where it finds an IFS character and assign each token to 'file'.

I would try something like this..

INS=bos
for file in *.tif; do
! test -f $INS$file && mv $file $INS$file || echo Could not rename file $file
done

HTH

True, I was only trying to follow the original code posted, in fact, array=$(ls *.tif) is incorrect in my code, it should be array=(ls *.tif) (without the '$')

I've seen that syntax before but I'm not sure which shells it works with. Probably bash!

I'm stuck with...

set -A array a b c; echo ${array[@]}

:-(

Ok I'll try that out. My Bash is pretty remedial, but then again I guess so is the simple thing I'm trying to do here. Thanks guys...