How to automate dos2unix using shell script? - bash

Question

I have a bunch of xml files in a directory that need to have the dos2unix command performed on them and new files will be added every so often. I Instead of manually performing dos2unix command on each files everytime I would like to automate it all with a script. I have never even looked at a shell script in my life but so far I have this from what I have read on a few tutorials:
FILES=/tmp/testFiles/*
for f in $FILES
do
fname=`basename $f`
dos2unix *.xml $f $fname
done
However I keep getting the 'usage' output showing up. I think the problem is that I am not assigning the name of the new file correctly (fname).

Answer 1

The reason you're getting a usage message is that dos2unix doesn't take the extra arguments you're supplying. It will, however, accept multiple filenames (also via globs). You don't need a loop unless you're processing more files than can be accepted on the command line.
dos2unix /tmp/testFiles/*.xml
Should be all you need, unless you need recursion:
find /tmp/testFiles -name '*.xml' -exec dos2unix {} +
(for GNU find)

Answer 2

If all files are in one directory (no recursion needed) then you're almost there.
for file in /tmp/testFiles/*.xml ; do
dos2unix "$file"
done
By default dos2unix should convert in place and overwrite the original.
If recursion is needed you'll have to use find as well:
find /tmp/testFiles -name '*.xml' -print0 | while IFS= read -d '' file ; do
dos2unix "$file"
done
Which will work on all files ending with .xml in /tmp/testFiles/ and all of its sub-directories.
If no other step are required you can skip the shell loop entirely:
Non-recursive:
find /tmp/testFiles -maxdepth 1 -name '*.xml' -exec dos2unix {} +
And for recursive:
find /tmp/testFiles -name '*.xml' -exec dos2unix {} +
In your original command I see you finding the base name of each file name and trying to pass that to dos2unix, but your intent is not clear. Later, in a comment, you say you just want to overwrite the files. My solution performs the conversion, creates no backups and overwrites the original with the converted version. I hope this was your intent.

Answer 3

mkdir /tmp/testFiles/converted/
for f in /tmp/testFiles/*.xml
do
fname=`basename $f`
dos2unix $f ${f/testFiles\//testFiles\/converted\/}
# or for pure sh:
# dos2unix $f $(echo $f | sed s#testFiles/#testFiles/converted/#)
done
The result will be saved in the converted/ subdirectory.
The construction ${f/testFiles\//testFiles\/converted\/} (thanks to Rush)
or sed is used here to add converted/ before the name of the file:
$ echo /tmp/testFiles/1.xml | sed s#testFiles/#testFiles/converted/#
/tmp/testFiles/converted/1.xml

Answer 4

It is not clear which implementation of dos2unix you are using. Different implementations require different arguments. There are many different implementations around.
On RedHat/Fedora/Suse Linux you could just type
dos2unix /tmp/testFiles/*.xml
On SunOS you are required to give an input and output file name, and the above command would destroy several of your files.