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From terminal, how to list files with 2 dots or more then later manually judiciously rename files.

Six (6) file examples:

a..txt
b.txt.
codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt
d...txt
e....
..f.txt

Using: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa)

Some success with

find . -type f -name '*.*.*' |sort

The above command outputs 4 of 6 files:

./a..txt
./codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt
./d...txt
./..f.txt

and misses 2 files:

b.txt.
e....

The command below did not find above 2 files that end with a dot .:

find . -type f -name '*\.'

How to List files with 2 Periods (dots), or more?

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More information requested.

$ find . | od -c
0000000   .  \n   .   /   a   .   .   t   x   t  \n   .   /   b   .   t
0000020   x   t  \n   .   /   c   o   d   e   c   -   p   a   c   k   -
0000040   2   .   6   .   1   .   0   _   e   n   .   t   x   t  \n   .
0000060   /   d   .   .   .   t   x   t  \n   .   /   e  \n   .   /   .
0000100   .   f   .   t   x   t  \n   .   /   1   1   _   e   m   p   t
0000120   y   .   t   x   t  \n
0000126

--

More information requested.

  • What is the filesystem?
  • What is the GUI program exactly?
$ lsblk -f
FSTYPE = vfat for a usb flash drive, stick.

gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.36.9
___________ 3.36.8 by visible GUI in Settings .1 difference

$ apt-cache show gnome-shell | grep Version
Version: 3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Version: 3.36.4-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
Version: 3.36.1-5ubuntu1

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.0.17(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
phuclv
  • 27,773
joseph22
  • 357
  • 2
    You're pretty close, you just need to backslash your periods in the first query. There's a big difference between . and \. – Barry Carter Aug 01 '22 at 17:04
  • In my tests in Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, with find from GNU findutils 4.8.0, the command find . -type f -name '*.*.*' |sort found all the 6 files. Is Windows world in any way connected to your case? (WSL, NTFS, …). – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 17:14
  • Hello Barry, 4 of 6 files found with: find . -type f -name '*\.*\.*' |sort shows ./a..txt ./codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt ./d...txt ./..f.txt – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 17:43
  • Helo Kamil. Is Windows world in any way connected to your case? Yes. Bouncing between ms Windoze and Ubuntu 20.04 with FAT32, NTFS, ext4. Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa) find --version is find (GNU findutils) 4.7.0 – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 17:44
  • Does find . -name '*.*.*' also miss 2 files? – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 17:57
  • find . shows 7 files :
    . ./a..txt ./b.txt ./codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt ./d...txt ./e ./..f.txt note the file e.... is truncated to ./e     – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 18:05
  • find . -name '*.*.*' shows 4 of 6 files, 2 files missing. ./a..txt ./codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt ./d...txt ./..f.txt – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 18:06
  • OK then. What is the output of find . | od -c? Please do not post this in a comment. [Edit] the question and post there. – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 18:09
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    Your find obviously "thinks" there are files b.txt and e. Why do you think there are b.txt. and e....? What exact command told you these names? Or with what exact command did you create files with these alleged names? – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 18:18
  • touch G... is visible in GUI as 4 characters, said differently files that end with a dot. GUI = Graphical User Interface. but find . sees file as 1 character ./G not 4 characters. – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 18:43
  • What is the filesystem? What is the GUI program exactly? – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 18:46
  • See addition to Question. – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 19:19
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    When I asked about connection to the Windows world, I meant this specific case, the problem. The reason I asked is here: filenames in Win32 namespace are not allowed to contain dots at the end. Now I strongly suspect vfat is the culprit. AFAIK the command you used (that worked for me) is by all Linux standards the right command to do what you want to do; it would work on ext4 or btrfs because the files would keep these names in the first place. – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 01 '22 at 19:22
  • Copied files from vfat usb to Music. pwd dir /home/u3/Music/xxand this dir should be ext4. And find . -type f -name '*.*.*' shows 4 of 6 files. – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 19:32
  • "this dir should be ext4. And find . -type f -name '*.*.*' shows 4 of 6 files" – So maybe the other 2 were copied without trailing dots in their names. Have you checked this thoroughly in the new location? – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 02 '22 at 04:30
  • Kamil you are correct. find . -type f -name '*.*.*' shows 4 of 6 files.
    The other 2 files have less than 2 dots & that means b.txt & e _ On another note I did Live USB Kubuntu 22.04.1 and find . -type f -name '*.*.*' works, suspect bug in Ubuntu 20.04.4 regarding List files with 2 Periods (dots), or more     – joseph22 Aug 03 '22 at 02:09

1 Answers1

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You can try something like:

ls -a *\.*\.*

the -a is to show files starting with . Here is example:

# find .
.
./..f.txt
./a..txt
./b.txt.
./codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt
./d...txt
./e....
# ls -a *\.*\.*
..f.txt                    b.txt.                     d...txt
a..txt                     codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt  e....

Here is example of vertical listing:

# ls -1a *\.*\.*
..f.txt
a..txt
b.txt.
codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt
d...txt
e....
Romeo Ninov
  • 6,295
  • Helo Romeo, 3 of 6 files found with: ls -a *\.*\.* gives
    a..txt codec-pack-2.6.1.0_en.txt d...txt for a vertical list use ll means ll -a *\.*\.*     – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 17:45
  • @joseph22, for me this work perfectly with busybox and display all the files. And why do you need vertical list? Seems like something is broken on your side. – Romeo Ninov Aug 01 '22 at 17:49
  • No need for a vertical list. Preference. – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 17:54
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    @joseph22, ll give you "long" listing which may be a problem, better use -1 – Romeo Ninov Aug 01 '22 at 17:55
  • ls -1a *\.*\.* shows 3 of 6 files. Seems like file e.... is the most difficult to show. – joseph22 Aug 01 '22 at 18:17
  • @joseph22, I demonstrate display of all the files. So it seems like problem is in your machine. – Romeo Ninov Aug 01 '22 at 18:18
  • no need to use \. in a glob pattern, just *.*.* is enough because . is just special in a regex, not in a glob – phuclv Aug 02 '22 at 00:45
  • i am considering a move to Kubuntu 22.04.1 from Ubuntu 20.04.4 because with Ubuntu 20.04.4 i get divergent results with a file ending with a dot. Like file e.... with GUI versus Terminal and file e.... on usb vfat versus ext4. – joseph22 Aug 03 '22 at 02:27