WOW, that was an impressing demo of mastering regexp
I think I would have used hours to do that!
As usual your post is very clear, easy to follow (even for amateurs like me) and straight to the point.
To rename a lot of files, I usually utilize vils.
Code:
sverre % ls
latest-pkg latest-pkg-erlangen latest-pkg-plig
latest-pkg-calyx latest-pkg-esat latest-pkg-stacken
sverre % vils
1 0001 latest-pkg
2 0002 latest-pkg-calyx
3 0003 latest-pkg-erlangen
4 0004 latest-pkg-esat
5 0005 latest-pkg-plig
6 0006 latest-pkg-stacken
~
Then, in vils give the command
which gives
Code:
1 0001 latest_pkg
2 0002 latest_pkg-calyx
3 0003 latest_pkg-erlangen
4 0004 latest_pkg-esat
5 0005 latest_pkg-plig
6 0006 latest_pkg-stacken
~
Then exit vils in the standard vi way:
Code:
:wq
sverre % ls
latest_pkg latest_pkg-erlangen latest_pkg-plig
latest_pkg-calyx latest_pkg-esat latest_pkg-stacken
sverre %
This is probably faster if you have the files in only a few directories, but I in your case with many directories I would think your sed-script is more suitable. Not to mention how fun it is to experiment with regular expressions!