[ILUG] Strip first three characters from filename

[paul at clubi.ie]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008, Padraig Kitterick wrote:

> Sure, awk can extract a substring. For example, the following lists all mp3 
> files with the first three chars removed:
>
> ls *.mp3 | awk '{print substr($1,4)}'
>
> You could use a script to loop over each mp3 file, use the above awk snippet 
> to remove the first three chars and then rename the file.

Or just do the rename in awk..

  { cmd = "mv " $1 " " substr($1,4); system(cmd); close(cmd); }

(not tested).

(cue other padraid pointing out the inefficiency of the above wrt 
number of shell spawnages ;) ).

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
About all some men accomplish in life is to send a son to Harvard.