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theduke
Asked: 2011-05-08 00:46:40 +0800 CST

mv, rename if exists

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I need to assemble a lot of images into one directory. Many of those images have the same file names.

Is there some safe version of mv that will automatically rename files if the target filename already exists so that pic1.jpeg becomes something like pic1_2.jpeg?

I could write my own python script but there has to be something like this out there so I can do:

find . -type f -name *.jpg -exec mvsafe '{}' /targetpath/ \;
linux mv

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    mv already supports this out of the box (at least in Debian):

    mv --backup=t <source_file> <dest_file>

    As seen in mv(1) manpage:

    --backup[=CONTROL]
         make a backup of each existing destination file

The  backup  suffix  is  `~',  unless  set  with   --suffix   or   SIM‐
PLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.   The version control method may be selected via the
--backup option or through the  VERSION_CONTROL  environment  variable.

    To make --backup=t mean "make numbered backups", invoke as follows:

    env VERSION_CONTROL=numbered mv --backup=t <source_file> <dest_file>

    (dest_file can of course be a directory).

    Edit: in later versions (at least GNU coreutils 8.22 but prolly already much earlier) you can simply write 

    mv --backup=numbered <source_file> <dest_file>
    • 50

  2. move command rename file if file exists.

    Install

    node install -g @gauravnumber/move

    Example

    move *.jpg dirname

    link to repo

    • 0