Ubuntu Manpage: mmv - move/copy/link multiple files by wildcard patterns

NAME

       mmv - move/copy/link multiple files by wildcard patterns

DESCRIPTION

./build-aux/mmv-help2man-wrapper: 6: ./mmv: not found

Mmv moves (or copies or links, as specified) each source file matching a from pattern to
the target name specified by the to pattern. This multiple action is performed safely,
i.e. without any unexpected deletion of files due to collisions of target names with
existing filenames or with other target names. Furthermore, before doing anything, mmv
attempts to detect any errors that would result from the entire set of actions specified
and gives the user the choice of either proceeding by avoiding the offending parts or
aborting. mmv does support large files (LFS) but it does not support sparse files (i.e.
it explodes them).

Older versions of mmv supported interactive editing of the rename etc. operations, but
using a fragile system that could not cope with certain characters, such as spaces, in
filenames. Users who require this functionality can use qmv(1) and friends (in the
renameutils package).

The Task Options

Whether mmv moves, copies, or links is governed by the first set of options given above.
If none of these are specified, the task is given by the command name under which mmv was
invoked:

command name default task

mmv --copydel
mcp --copy
mln --hardlink

The task option choices are:

--move:
move source file to target name. Both must be on the same device. If the source
file is a symbolic link, moves the link without checking if the link's target from
the new directory is different than the old.

--copydel:
same as --move, except cross-device moves are done by copying, then deleting
source. When copying, sets the permission bits and file modification time of the
target file to that of the source file.

--rename:
rename source file or directory to target name. The target name must not include a
path: the file remains in the same directory in all cases.

--copy:
copy source file to target name. Sets the file modification time and permission
bits of the target file to that of the source file, regardless of whether the
target file already exists. Chains and cycles (to be explained below) are not
allowed.

--overwrite:
overwrite target name with source file. If target file exists, it is overwritten,
keeping its original owner and permission bits. If it does not exist, it is
created, with read-write permission bits set according to umask(1), and the execute
permission bits copied from the source file. In either case, the file modification
time is set to the current time.

--hardlink:
link target name to source file. Both must be on the same device, and the source
must not be a directory. Chains and cycles are not allowed.

--symlink:
same as --hardlink, but use symbolic links instead of hard links. For the
resulting link to aim back at the source, either the source name must begin with a
'/', or the target must reside in either the current or the source directory. If
none of these conditions are met, the link is refused. However, source and target
can reside on different devices, and the source can be a directory.

Only one of these options may be given, and it applies to all matching files.

The From Pattern

The from pattern is a filename with embedded wildcards: '*', '?', '['...']', and ';'. The
first three have their usual sh(1) meanings of, respectively, matching any string of
characters, matching any single character, and matching any one of a set of characters.

Between the '[' and ']', a range from character 'a' through character 'z' is specified
with "a-z". The set of matching characters can be negated by inserting a '^' after the
'['. Thus, "[^b-e2-5_]" will match any character but 'b' through 'e', '2' through '5',
and '_'.

Note that paths are allowed in the patterns, and wildcards may be intermingled with
slashes arbitrarily. The ';' wildcard is useful for matching files at any depth in the
directory tree. It matches the same as "*/" repeated any number of times, including zero,
and can only occur either at the beginning of the pattern or following a '/'. Thus ";*.c"
will match all ".c" files in or below the current directory, while "/;*.c" will match them
anywhere on the file system.

In addition, if the from pattern (or the to pattern) begins with "~/", the '~' is replaced
with the home directory name. (Note that the "~user" feature of csh(1) is not
implemented.) However, the '~' is not treated as a wildcard, in the sense that it is not
assigned a wildcard index (see below).

The directories "." and ".." are only matched against completely explicit from patterns
(i.e. not containing wildcards).

Files beginning with '.' are only matched against from patterns that begin with an
explicit '.'. However, if -h is specified, they are matched normally.

Warning: since the shell normally expands wildcards before passing the command-line
arguments to mmv, it is usually necessary to enclose the command-line from and to patterns
in quotes.

The To Pattern

The to pattern is a filename with embedded wildcard indexes, where an index consists of
the character '#' followed by a string of digits. When a source file matches a from
pattern, a target name for the file is constructed out of the to pattern by replacing the
wildcard indexes by the actual characters that matched the referenced wildcards in the
source name. Thus, if the from pattern is "abc*.*" and the to pattern is "xyz#2.#1", then
"abc.txt" is targeted to "xyztxt.". (The first '*' matched "", and the second matched
"txt".) Similarly, for the pattern pair ";*.[clp]" -> "#1#3/#2", "foo1/foo2/prog.c" is
targeted to "foo1/foo2/c/prog". Note that there is no '/' following the "#1" in the to
pattern, since the string matched by any ';' is always either empty or ends in a '/'. In
this case, it matches "foo1/foo2/".

To convert the string matched by a wildcard to either lowercase or uppercase before
embedding it in the target name, insert 'l' or 'u', respectively, between the '#' and the
string of digits.

The to pattern, like the from pattern, can begin with a "~/" (see above). This does not
necessitate enclosing the to pattern in quotes on the command line since csh(1) expands
the '~' in the exact same manner as mmv (or, in the case of sh(1), does not expand it at
all).

For all task options other than -r, if the target name is a directory, the real target
name is formed by appending a '/' followed by the last component of the source file name.
For example, "mmv dir1/a dir2" will, if "dir2" is indeed a directory, actually move
"dir1/a" to "dir2/a". However, if "dir2/a" already exists and is itself a directory, this
is considered an error.

To strip any character (e.g. '*', '?', or '#') of its special meaning to mmv, as when the
actual replacement name must contain the character '#', precede the special character with
a '\' (and enclose the argument in quotes because of the shell). This also works to
terminate a wildcard index when it has to be followed by a digit in the filename, e.g.
"a#1\1".

Chains and Cycles

A chain is a sequence of specified actions where the target name of one action refers to
the source file of another action. For example,

mmv
a b
b c

specifies the chain "a" -> "b" -> "c". A cycle is a chain where the last target name
refers back to the first source file, e.g. "mmv a a". Mmv detects chains and cycles
regardless of the order in which their constituent actions are actually given. Where
allowed, i.e. in moving and renaming files, chains and cycles are handled gracefully, by
performing them in the proper order. Cycles are broken by first renaming one of the files
to a temporary name.

Collisions and Deletions

When any two or more matching files would have to be moved, copied, or linked to the same
target filename, mmv detects the condition as an error before performing any actions.
Furthermore, mmv checks if any of its actions will result in the destruction of existing
files. If the -d (delete) option is specified, all file deletions or overwrites are done
silently. Under -p (protect), all deletions or overwrites (except those specified with
"(*)" on the standard input, see below) are treated as errors. And if neither option is
specified, the user is queried about each deletion or overwrite separately. (The terminal
is used for interactive queries, not standard input.)

Error Handling

Whenever any error in the user's action specifications is detected, an error message is
given on the standard output, and mmv proceeds to check the rest of the specified actions.
Once all errors are detected, mmv asks the user whether to continue by avoiding the
erroneous actions or to abort altogether. This and all other queries may be avoided by
specifying either the -g (go) or -t (terminate) option. The former will resolve all
difficulties by avoiding the erroneous actions; the latter will abort mmv if any errors
are detected. Specifying either of them defaults mmv to -p, unless -d is specified (see
above). Thus, -g and -t are most useful when running mmv in the background or in a shell
script, when interactive queries are undesirable.

Reports

Once the actions to be performed are determined, mmv performs them silently, unless either
the -v (verbose) or -n (no-execute) option is specified. The former causes mmv to report
each performed action on the standard output as

a -> b : done.

Here, "a" and "b" would be replaced by the source and target names, respectively. If the
action deletes the old target, a "(*)" is inserted after the the target name. Also, the
"->" symbol is modified when a cycle has to be broken: the '>' is changed to a '^' on the
action prior to which the old target is renamed to a temporary, and the '-' is changed to
a '=' on the action where the temporary is used.

Under -n, none of the actions are performed, but messages like the above are printed on
the standard output with the ": done." omitted.

Although mmv attempts to predict all mishaps prior to performing any specified actions,
accidents may happen. For example, mmv does not check for adequate free space when
copying. Thus, despite all efforts, it is still possible for an action to fail after some
others have already been done. To make recovery as easy as possible, mmv reports which
actions have already been done and which are still to be performed after such a failure
occurs. It then aborts, not attempting to do anything else.

EXAMPLES

       Rename all *.jpeg files in the current directory to *.jpg:

          mmv '*.jpeg' '#1.jpg'

       Replace the first occurrence of abc with xyz in all files in the current directory:

          mmv '*abc*' '#1xyz#2'

       Rename files ending in .html.en, .html.de, etc. to ending in .en.html, .de.html,  etc.  in
       the current directory:

          mmv '*.html.??' '#1.#2#3.html'

       Rename  music files from <track no.> - <interpreter> - <song title>.ogg to <interpreter> -
       <track no.> - <song title>.ogg in the current directory:

          mmv '* - * - *.ogg' '#2 - #1 - #3.ogg'

EXIT STATUS

       Mmv exits with status 1 if it aborts before doing anything, with status 2 if it aborts due
       to failure after completing some of the actions, and with status 0 otherwise.

AUTHOR

       Written by Vladimir Lanin and Reuben Thomas.

BUGS