OS X Syntax For...

[Jud]

I want to rename all the .aif files on my external music storage HDD (nested 2 or 3 folders deep in some cases) to .aiff. Handy Terminal command? Thanks.

[wgscott]

If for some reason you don't already use zsh, you can start an instance of this by issuing the following command:

 

 

/bin/zsh -l

 

Now issue these two commands

 

autoload -U zmv

 

alias mmv='noglob zmv -W'

 

I put those in my .zshrc file, so I never have to worry about it.

 

Now you could do what you want in each directory individually with this syntax:

 

mmv *.aif *.aiff

 

But that would be tedious. Thanks to zsh, you can do this in one shot, using zsh's recursive globbing feature:

 

cd to your top-level music directory that contains all the aif files. Now issue

 

mmv **/*.aif **/*.aiff

 

 

For more info: zsh on os x

[Jud]

If for some reason you don't already use zsh, you can start an instance of this by issuing the following command:

 

 

/bin/zsh -l

 

Now issue these two commands

 

autoload -U zmv

 

alias mmv='noglob zmv -W'

 

I put those in my .zshrc file, so I never have to worry about it.

 

Now you could do what you want in each directory individually with this syntax:

 

mmv *.aif *.aiff

 

But that would be tedious. Thanks to zsh, you can do this in one shot, using zsh's recursive globbing feature:

 

cd to your top-level music directory that contains all the aif files. Now issue

 

mmv **/*.aif **/*.aiff

 

 

For more info: zsh on os x

 

Thanks for the clear directions. Always liked zsh. When I worked with FreeBSD more often I'd usually replace the default shell with it.

[4est]

Jud: May I ask what for?

I want to rename all the .aif files on my external music storage HDD (nested 2 or 3 folders deep in some cases) to .aiff. Handy Terminal command? Thanks.

[wgscott]

They sound better.

[Jud]

Jud: May I ask what for?

 

I no longer have the specific potential problem that caused me to ask the question. But the answer is still useful when wanting to quickly make a particular change in X characteristic of all the files on a drive or in any upper level directory.