From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-07-10T00:27:39+09:00
Subject: Re: renaming files randomly

On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Bil Kleb wrote:

> Got this request yesterday and still haven't had
> time to decipher it and code it -- I figured I'd
> throw it out here and see what you folks come up with:
>
> Eric wrote:
>>
>> I want to change the names of several hundred files to random numbers
>> (without overwriting any files).  I have a bunch of pictures for our
>> reception, but they're basically in chronological order by their current
>> filenames.  But I want the slideshow to play in random order, so I need to
>> randomize the filenames.
>
> I'll also ask why the slideshow software can't just be
> told to show things randomly...
>
> Thanks,

rather than rename, i'd just make a dir full of links:

   harp:~ > cat a.rb
   require 'fileutils'

   dir, dir_full_of_links, ignored = ARGV

   dir_full_of_links ||= dir + '.d.links'
   d, f, fu = Dir, File, FileUtils

   glob = f.join dir, '*'
   srcs = d.glob(glob).map{|path| f.expand_path path}

   link = 'a'
   dsts = srcs.map{|path| f.join dir_full_of_links, link.succ!}

   fu.rm_rf dir_full_of_links
   fu.mkdir_p dir_full_of_links
   dsts.sort_by{ rand }

   srcs.zip(dsts) do |src, dst|
     puts "#{ src } -->> #{ dst }"
     fu.ln_s src, dst
   end


   harp:~ > ls -ltar tmp
   total 716
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward       393 May  5 05:30 G2006050506.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward       393 May  5 11:30 G2006050512.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward    260640 May  5 11:30 G2006050512.sfctmp.dat
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward       393 May  5 17:30 G2006050518.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward    260640 May  5 17:30 G2006050518.sfctmp.dat
   -rw-rw-r--    1 ahoward  ahoward     90112 May 23 09:30 G2006050506.sfctmp.dat
   drwxrwxr-x    2 ahoward  ahoward      8192 Jul  9 09:25 .
   drwx------  170 ahoward  ahoward     81920 Jul  9 09:26 ..


   harp:~ > ruby a.rb tmp
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050506.sfctmp.dat -->> tmp.d.links/b
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050506.sfctmp.dat.hdr -->> tmp.d.links/c
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050512.sfctmp.dat -->> tmp.d.links/d
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050512.sfctmp.dat.hdr -->> tmp.d.links/e
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050518.sfctmp.dat -->> tmp.d.links/f
   /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050518.sfctmp.dat.hdr -->> tmp.d.links/g


   harp:~ > ls -ltar tmp.d.links/
   total 88
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        44 Jul  9 09:26 g -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050518.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        40 Jul  9 09:26 f -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050518.sfctmp.dat
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        44 Jul  9 09:26 e -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050512.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        40 Jul  9 09:26 d -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050512.sfctmp.dat
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        44 Jul  9 09:26 c -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050506.sfctmp.dat.hdr
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 ahoward  ahoward        40 Jul  9 09:26 b -> /home/ahoward/tmp/G2006050506.sfctmp.dat
   drwx------  171 ahoward  ahoward     81920 Jul  9 09:26 ..
   drwxrwxr-x    2 ahoward  ahoward      4096 Jul  9 09:26 .

regards.

-a
-- 
suffering increases your inner strength.  also, the wishing for suffering
makes the suffering disappear.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama