Invoking zmv from bash

Question

I have recently discovered this technique for renaming files using zsh:

autoload zmv zmv '(*).JPG' '$1.jpg'

which I can also write as:

autoload zmv; zmv '(*).JPG' '$1.jpg'

This works as advertised and I can use it to change the Upper Case JPG extension to lower case.

However, I would like to run this as a one-liner from my usual BASH shell. When I try to call it as follows:

zsh -c "autoload zmv; zmv -f '(*).JPG' '$1.jpg'"

or as:

echo 'autoload zmv; zmv -f "(*).JPG" "$1.jpg"' | zsh -i

I get something like the following message

zmv: error(s) in substitution: ….JPG and ….JPG both map to .jpg

This suggests to me that that zsh is treating the file names case-insensitively, but that does not appear to be the case when run the first way.

Obviously, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I have also tried reversing the single and double quotes in case shell expansion is getting in the way.

How can I run this command as a one-liner from bash?

Stéphane Chazelas · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-27 12:07:15Z

In:

zsh -c "autoload zmv; zmv -f '(*).JPG' '$1.jpg'"

The $1 is between double quotes, so expanded by your shell (bash), most probably to the empty string so zsh ends up interpreting:

autoload zmv; zmv -f '(*).JPG' '.jpg'

Use:

zsh -c "autoload zmv && zmv '(*).JPG' '\$1.jpg'"

Where the backslash quotes the $ for bash to remove its special meaning inside double quotes.

You can also do:

zsh -c "autoload zmv && zmv '(*).(#i)jpg' '\$1.jpg'"

Where (#i) is to turn on case-insensitive matching so it also renames the .Jpg, .JPg, .jpG... files.

You could also make it a function:

fix_ext_case() { EXT=$1 zsh -c "autoload zmv && zmv \"(*).(#i)\$EXT\" '\$1.\$EXT'" }

Or with a different combination of quotes:

fix_ext_case() { EXT=$1 zsh -c 'autoload zmv && zmv "(*).(#i)$EXT" "\$1.\$EXT"' }

To be used as:

fix_ext_case jpg

or

fix_ext_case png

(or fix_ext_case JPG if you want to convert to upper-case).

Excellent. The `` did the trick. Thanks also for your additional information. — Manngo
– Manngo, Commented Oct 27, 2017 at 11:55

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