bash script to recursively sanitize folder and file names

#! /bin/bash

sanitize() {
  shopt -s extglob;

  filename=$(basename "$1")
  directory=$(dirname "$1")

  filename_clean="${filename//+([^[:alnum:]_-\.])/_}"

  if (test "$filename" != "$filename_clean")
  then
    mv -v --backup=numbered "$1" "$directory/$filename_clean"
  fi
}

export -f sanitize
find $1 -depth -exec bash -c 'sanitize "$0"' {} \;

9 thoughts on “bash script to recursively sanitize folder and file names”

1. Almost 10 years later, this saved my ass today. This is the only solution I could find that properly takes care of the problem of altering nested folder and files names recursively. Thanks a lot!

   Reply
   1. Good to know! Thanks for the feedback. :)

      Reply
2. So long ago, but still very useful. Thanks for sharing.

   Reply
3. Related to the above: I managed to put a newline in the filename but the HTML sanitizer from WordPress won’t let me paste it in. :) So the filename above should have a Return just before the final quote. FYI.

   Reply
4. touch “_\* uu ~ \( \) .txt ”

   Now run your sanitizer on this. Let me know what happens. Personally I get:

   mv: rename ./_* uu ~ ( ) .txt to ./_uu_txt: No such file or directory

   tai@recluse:~/Downloads/tester$bash -version
   GNU bash, version 3.2.51(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin13)
   Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Reply
   1. Thanks for pointing this out.

      I changed the script to not use “read” anymore, because that was causing the problems.

      Instead I now use find -exec with a shell function.

      Reply
   2. I also added a –backup option to the mv command to make sure that multiple files that would all be sanitized to the same file name do not get lost in translation. :o)

      Reply
5. Just wanted to say thanks, just the thing to save me from a directory of filenames which should never have existed!

   Reply
6. Thank you, that was helpful!

   Reply