Batch change creation dates based on file names using setFile

Question

So I tried modifying the command I found here: to work with my date format: 2015-12-31 22.07.29 and using setFile -d instead of touch.

Here's my script

for f in *; do
t="${t%%.*}"
t=“${t%%-*}”
m=“${t:5:2}”
d=“${t:8:2}”
y=“${t:0:4}”
h=“${t:11:2}”
m=“${t:14:2}”
s=“${t:17:2}”
date=“$m/$d/$y $h$m$s”
setFile -d $date "$f"
done

I try running the command in the folder with jpegs that have the wrong creation date but i get this error over and over

-bash: “”“”??: command not found
ERROR: invalid date/time

I'm a total noob when it comes to using terminal so I have no idea what's wrong with the formatting and what is causing the other error. Does anyone here know what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

To me it looks like the problem is with the quotes. Try to copy paste this into your script:

for f in *; do
t="${t%%.*}"
t="${t%%-*}"
m="${t:5:2}"
d="${t:8:2}"
y="${t:0:4}"
h="${t:11:2}"
m="${t:14:2}"
s="${t:17:2}"
date="$m/$d/$y $h$m$s"
setFile -d $date "$f"
done

Answer 2

Here's your script cleaned up and written as a kornshell script and then as a bash shell script. In both cases we use the shell's extended glob feature to match appropriate filenames. I'm assuming that filenames begin with 4 digits then a hyphen, have two more digits then another hyphen and then two digits followed by any other number of characters- ending with the suffix .jpg.

#! /bin/ksh

for f in {4}([0-9])-{2}([0-9])-{2}([0-9])*.jpg
do
        y=${f:0:4}
        m=${f:5:2}
        d=${f:8:2}
        H=${f:11:2}
        M=${f:14:2}
        S=${f:17:2}

        cr_date="$m/$d/$y $H:$M:$S"

        SetFile -d "$cr_date" "$f"
done

#! /bin/bash

shopt -s extglob

for f in +([0-9])-+([0-9])-+([0-9])*.jpg
do
        y=${f:0:4}
        m=${f:5:2}
        d=${f:8:2}
        H=${f:11:2}
        M=${f:14:2}
        S=${f:17:2}

        cr_date="$m/$d/$y $H:$M:$S"

        SetFile -d "$cr_date" "$f"
done