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From: asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu (The Grand Master)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Shell wildcard expansion
Message-ID: <13912@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 24 Jun 91 17:41:49 GMT
References: <1991Jun24.144854.8879@ap542.uucp>
Sender: news@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Reply-To: asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu (The Grand Master)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 93

In article <1991Jun24.144854.8879@ap542.uucp> mike@ap542.uucp (Mike Hoffmann) writes:
}
}Hi!
}
}I have no idea if this is a FAQ, but anyway.
}
}I'm looking for a wildcard expansion mechanism, where for example I could
}do mv *.c *.o.
}E.g. an expansion where I only get the * part. 

Are you saying that you want
$ ls
hi.c
there.c
how.c
areyou.c
$ mv *.c *.o
$ ls
hi.o
there.o
how.o
areyou.o

If so then here is a program called rename that is written in perl.
The syntax is:
rename s/\.c/\.o/ *.c
i.e.
rename (some sort of regexp replacement a la ed) (list of files on which to
                             			   perform this replacement)

Here it is

---------------cut here--------------
#! /usr/unsup/bin/perl
'di';
'ig00';
#
# $Header: /userb/asg/bin/RCS/rename,v 1.0 91/03/20 10:51:47 asg Exp Locker: asg $
#
# $Log:	rename,v $
# Revision 1.0  91/03/20  10:51:47  asg
# Initial revision
# 
# Revision 3.0.1.2  90/08/09  03:17:57  lwall
# patch19: added man page for relink and rename
# 

if ($ARGV[0] eq '-i') {
    shift;
    if (open(TTYIN, "</dev/tty") && open(TTYOUT,">/dev/tty")) {
	$inspect++;
	select((select(TTYOUT),$|=1)[0]);
    } 
}
($op = shift) || die "Usage: rename [-i] perlexpr [filenames]\n";
if (!@ARGV) {
    @ARGV = <STDIN>;
    chop(@ARGV);
}
for (@ARGV) {
    unless (-e) {
	print STDERR "$0: $_: $!\n";
	$status = 1;
	next;
    } 
    $was = $_;
    eval $op;
    die $@ if $@;
    if ($was ne $_) {
	if ($inspect && -e) {
	    print TTYOUT "remove $_? ";
	    next unless <TTYIN> =~ /^y/i;
	} 
	unless (rename($was, $_)) {
	    print STDERR "$0: can't rename $was to $_: $!\n";
	    $status = 1;
	}
    } 
}
exit $status;
------------cut here-------------

Hope this helps

			Bruce
---------
                                   ###             ##
Courtesy of Bruce Varney           ###               #
aka -> The Grand Master                               #
asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu             ###    #####       #
PUCC                               ###                #
;-)                                 #                #
;'>                                #               ##