My bash script
#!/bin/bash
read -r -p "Enter the filenames: " -a arr
for i in "${arr[@]}"
do
echo $i | sed 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/'
cp -v ~/Desktop/library/template.py "$i".py
done
If i write A B.py C D.py, this script will turn it into A.py B.py C.py D.py
-v flag of cp -v explains what is being done
but i don't want to print the edited filenames echo $i. It's annoying.
How can i do that?
alternative solutions are also appreciated
You want to trim the value of $i after the last dot in the string.
You can do this like so:
i=${i%.*}
This removes the shortest suffix string from $i that matches the filename globbing pattern .* (a dot followed by any string).
If you know you want to trim off .py specifically:
i=${i%.py}
This means you could write your cp command like so:
cp -v ~/Desktop/library/template.py "${i%.py}.py"
This would be the only command in the loop body and it would remove the .py filename suffix from $i, if the value had such a suffix, and then add .py. This ensures that the destination filename always has .py as the filename suffix and at the same time avoids doubling the suffix.
Suggestion for script:
#!/bin/sh
for string do
cp -v ~/Desktop/library/template.py "${string%.py}.py"
done
Or,
#!/bin/zsh
for string; cp -v ~/Desktop/library/template.py $string:r.py
... which uses the zsh shell, its alternative, shorter, form for the for loop, and its :r modifier to remove the filename extension before adding .py to the name.
You would call either script like so:
./script A B.py C D.py
I found an trick:
#!/bin/bash
read -r -p "Enter the filenames: " -a arr
for i in "${arr[@]}"
do
var=$(echo "$i" | sed 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/')
cp -v ~/Desktop/library/template.py "$var".py
done
$i variable
$() syntax than backticks. Also you need to quote the arg to echo to avoid various issues with the shell's word splitting and filename globbing.