Changing filenames

I'm a novice perl user who has Active Perl installed on my Windows 7 computer.

I have a directory full of files with names like text134.txt and the first line of each contains what I would like to change the filename to. For example, text167.txt consists of these seven lines:

Canon Camera
Doc copy-
1 set camera to M
2 press FUNC SET
3 select Digital Macro (tulip w/D)
4 press FUNC SET

I would like to change the file's name to canon camera.txt or canon_camera.txt (the case of the initial letter is immaterial to me)

Would some kind soul write a simple script for me? Thanks.

Comment on Changing filenames
Re: Changing filenames by Anonymous Monk on Apr 26, 2011 at 00:43 UTC
Would some kind soul write a simple script for me? Thanks. Then what would you have learned? Ok, see Re^2: perl -pi -e s'/^\s+//'g $file, see perlintro, see FMTYEWTK About Mass Edits In Perl, see perlintro See PerlMonks FAQ, Understanding and Using PerlMonks, How do I post a question effectively?	[reply]
Re^2: Changing filenames by Anonymous Monk on Apr 26, 2011 at 00:53 UTC
Read perlintro then you can write program, like `#!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; Main('directory'); sub Main { open directory, read a list of files ( or File::Find::Rule ) loop over list, and opened a lexical filehandle read lines until you find the new name, then copy the file to the new name close your lexical filehandle }`	[reply]
Re^2: Changing filenames by pikov22 (Initiate) on Apr 26, 2011 at 03:44 UTC
Thank you. I'm almost 80 years old and I have no desire to start learning perl. And by the time I learned enough to write a script that worked, I probably could have done the renaming manually.	[reply]
Re^3: Changing filenames by chromatic (Archbishop) on Apr 26, 2011 at 05:45 UTC
If you are willing to write a program that can read one file and figure out what to change its name to, I will write the rest of the program for you. (If you aren't already reading a good book or tutorial, my Modern Perl is available as a free download.)	[reply]
Re^3: Changing filenames by ww (Chancellor) on Apr 26, 2011 at 12:59 UTC
Perhaps, but once you learned enough to write a script, you'd have the knowledge to address the problem quickly, with the same script, the next time it arises...	[reply]
Re: Changing filenames by ww (Chancellor) on Apr 26, 2011 at 02:16 UTC
Both previous answers allude to this (and offer some points supporting it): I'll make it explicit. PM is a place for learning; not a place to come for free scripts. We'ld love to help you learn, if you wish to do so and put some effort into it. To that end, you might want to start by reading The Perl Monks Guide to the Monastery and at least some of the offerings in PerlMonks FAQ.	[reply]


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Changing filenames

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