Listing: albumize

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z "$ALBUM" ]; then
echo 'You must set the ALBUM name first (eg. export ALBUM="Greatest Hits")'
exit 1
fi

for x in *; do
echo -n $x; echo -ne '\000'
echo -n `echo $x|cut -f 1 -d '-'`
echo -n " - $ALBUM - "
echo -n `echo $x|cut -f 2- -d '-'`; echo -ne '\000'
done | xargs -0 -n2 mv

We're actually doing two tricky things here. First, we're building a list consisting of the original filename followed by the name to which we'd like to mv it, separated by NULL characters, for all files in the current directory. We then feed that entire list to an xargs with two switches: -0 tells it to break on NULLs (instead of newlines or whitespace), and -n2 tells it to take two arguments at a time on each pass, and feed them to our command (mv).

Save the script as ~/bin/albumize. Before you run it, set the $ALBUM environment variable to the name that you'd like injected into the filename just after the first -. Here's a trial run:

rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$ export ALBUM="The Lone Deranger"
rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$ albumize
rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$ ls
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 01 - Demention.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 02 - Snakey Shaker.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 03 - Trancespotter.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 04 - Horrorgram.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 05 - Snarling (Remix).mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 06 - Gamma Goblins Pt. 2.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 07 - Deranger.mp3
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - 08 - Jiggle of the Sphinx.mp3
rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$

What if you would like to remove the album name again? Try this one, and call it ~/bin/dealbumize:

#!/bin/sh

for x in *; do
echo -n $x; echo -ne '\000'
echo -n `echo $x|cut -f 1 -d '-'`; echo -n ' - '
echo -n `echo $x|cut -f 3- -d '-'`; echo -ne '\000'
done | xargs -0 -n2 mv

and simply run it (no $ALBUM required):

rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$ dealbumize
rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$ ls
Hallucinogen - 01 - Demention.mp3
Hallucinogen - 02 - Snakey Shaker.mp3
Hallucinogen - 03 - Trancespotter.mp3
Hallucinogen - 04 - Horrorgram.mp3
Hallucinogen - 05 - Snarling (Remix).mp3
Hallucinogen - 06 - Gamma Goblins Pt. 2.mp3
Hallucinogen - 07 - Deranger.mp3
Hallucinogen - 08 - Jiggle of the Sphinx.mp3
rob@catlin:~/Music/Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger$

The -0 switch is also popular to team up with the -print0 option of find (which, naturally, prints matching filenames separated by NULLs instead of newlines). With find and xargs on a pipeline, you can do anything you like to any number of files, without ever running into the dreaded Argument list too long error:

rob@catlin:~/Pit of too many files$ ls
bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long

A find/xargs combo makes quick work of these files, no matter what they're called:

rob@catlin:/Pit of too many files$ find -type f -print0 | xargs -0 ls

To delete them, just replace that trailing ls with an rm, and away you go.