Rename folder using the name of the file inside the folder Automator action

Comments: 5 Responses to “Rename folder using the name of the file inside the folder Automator action”

Gary Rosenzweig

13 years ago

That's an interesting one. I suppose it can be done.
But how many folders do you have like this?
If there are thousands, then sure. But a few dozen or even a hundred it might be worth it to do it manually or find another way to organize.

Gary Rosenzweig

13 years ago

Ah, I see. There are other files there too. OK.
I would say that this is better suited for Terminal and the command line than for Automator. Command line is great for renaming files. But, how to pick up a filename inside a folder and then use that for the rename?
I'm not sure. I'll tweet this and see if any command line experts can help.

Michael

13 years ago

ls */*.jpg | sed 's,\([^/]*\)/\(.*\).jpg,echo mv "\1" "\2",' | sh

Then when it looks good, remove the "echo "

Michael

13 years ago

And if that gives you too many filenames, you can do this:

find * -name \*.jpg -print | sed ...

Note on that: resist the temptation to do "find ." but if you're still getting too many filenames, you can do:

find . -name \*.jpg -print | sed 's,\./\([^/]*\)/\(.*\).jpg,echo mv "\1" "\2",' | sh

Also note that the quotes there are all ASCII double quotes or single quotes (unshifted double quotes)

And when you like the output, change it to:

find . -name \*.jpg -print | sed 's,\./\([^/]*\)/\(.*\).jpg,mv "\1" "\2",' | sh