Using Perl to rename files in a directory

Question

I\'d like to take a directory and for all email (*.msg) files, remove the \'RE \' at the beginning. I have the following code but the rename fails.

opendir(D         


        

Answer 1

I don't know if the regex fits the specifig name of the files, but in one line this could be done with:

perl -E'for (){ ($new = $_) =~ s/(^RE)(.*$)/$2/; say $_." -> ".$new}

(say ... is nice for testing, just replace it with rename $_,$new or rename($_,$new) )

1. <*.*> read every file in the current directory
2. ($new = $_) =~ saves the following substitution in $new and leaves $_ as intact
3. (^RE) save this match in $1 (optional) and just match files with "RE" at the beginning
4. (.*$) save everything until and including the end ($) of the line -> into $2
5. substitute the match with the string in$2