File Names & GIF Animations - small queries

[Calum]

good afternoon.

Well is it. i mean really.

One day (probably about the year 2067) i might be able to afford a new computer that can actually do something other than chew up blank CDs and waste my time.

But that's not why i called you all here today.

What i want to know is, what's the best way to manipulate mass amounts of filenames? example, say i have a directory full og files called east.mp3, star.mp3 and so on, and i want to prefix them with "Smashing Pumpkins - " how would i do it? how would i do it if some of the files in there were already prefixed? How would i do several different directories with the same options, and so on.

I found this promising looking thing on download.com, but all they do is link to a .deb file on sourceforge, with no info on how to get the install files for any other OS, of course it just says 'linux' on the download.com page, what morons. don't they even know what .deb files are?

anyway, any ideas on this? i know i'd have to download some app to do this in windows, but i have a feeling it could be done at the command line in linux.

Also, what about gif animations? i have never found a program to enable me to manipulate gif animations. Does GIMP do it? if so, HOW!!????!?? or is there some other program i can use for this?

thanks all....

[voidmain]

To prefix all of your *.mp3 files in a single directory with one specific thing like "Smashing Pumpkins - " you would do:

Code: [Select]

Now you might want to use this and make your own command called "prefixmp3" so you could add to it and like don't rename files that already have said prefix and you could just type:

$ prefixmp3 Smashing Pumpkins -

your script might look like this:

Code: [Select]

And of course you can just add to it to recurse subdirectories etc. Like maybe use the "find" command depending on exactly what you want to do...

[voidmain]

Oh, and there are 1000 ways to skin a cat in UNIX. There would be many that probably have a much shorter command line and might have used the "awk" command etc.

[Master of Reality]

The Gimp can do stuff to GIFs

[Calum]

thank you very much void man, many of that stuff is not too well known to me but you have told me some stuff that will make me learn for myself and that's a lot better than being led by the hand through something, so thanks again!

remember you had a policy of pissing off the same number of people as you helped? what happened to that? you seem to be being a total help these days!

[Master of Reality]

i dont remember that policy. I remember he said that he tried to keep his posts under the number of members (1 post of help per member) but that didnt work.

Ha, I am above you in posts Calum.

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by The Master of Reality / Bob:
The Gimp can do stuff to GIFs

thanks. how?

what i mean is, how do i manipulate the animation features in a gif?

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
remember you had a policy of pissing off the same number of people as you helped? what happened to that? you seem to be being a total help these days!

Oh that policy is still in effect. It pisses Windows users off who happen to be reading these forums that they paid all that money and still can't do similar things to the example I gave you...

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:


thanks. how?

what i mean is, how do i manipulate the animation features in a gif?

i dont remember it being very hard. I think that when you load a GIF it will have a toolbox with manipulation tools like going to the next frame and such.

[Sleeping Dog]

I know that I am a noob....but that little utility that I have mentioned on several occasions called "LREAD" that runs under "DrDOS" is a simple fix for those of us who still understand DOS protocol.  It lets you manipulate UNIX/LINUX files quite easily if you grew up in DOS world (without having to write your own code) or jump through too many hoops on a command line.

Just a thought....you might want to try that option after getting too frustrated.

Cheers and beers

Sleeping Dog

[voidmain]

Aarr?

[Centurian]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:


What i want to know is, what's the best way to manipulate mass amounts of filenames? example, say i have a directory full og files called east.mp3, star.mp3 and so on, and i want to prefix them with "Smashing Pumpkins - " how would i do it? how would i do it if some of the files in there were already prefixed? How would i do several different directories with the same options, and so on.

Heheh this is one case where Dos ( I wont say windows because windows no longer likes Dos) handles it as easily as linux does.

At the command line.
cd\directory_name_you_want_to_change
ren *.* Smashing_Pumkins_*.*
 
Every file in the directory will be renamed.

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by The Master of Reality / Bob:
i dont remember that policy. I remember he said that he tried to keep his posts under the number of members (1 post of help per member) but that didnt work.

Ha, I am above you in posts Calum.

ha! i'm member number 81 and you're member number 168, mine is way cooler.    :cool:  

Maybe you don't remember void main saying that because he did so before you signed up?  

[ September 23, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]