Remove all characters in multiple filenames, that follow a specific character, in Mac OS

Question

Trying to find a script, or app, that batch removes filename clutter following proper formatting.

For example this Exercise [2009] previous version.png into this Exercise [2009].png

I need the final character in all files to be "]" or the year/date, while preserving the filename extension.

I've tried a few scripts such as:

rename ’s/_[^_]*//‘ *.png

or

for file in *.png; do mv "$file" "$(echo "$file" | sed ’s/\.[^.]*$//‘)”; done

which either don't work, or simply remove the file extension after the last "."

I'm basically not sure if I'm changing the right characters in the script, or if these are even the best ones to use.

Answer 1

Like this, using Perl's rename:

$ rename 's/(.*\]).*/$1.png/' *.png 

Answer 2

Here's a solution I've found elsewhere that works on any specified character or characters. It finds the last occurrance of the characters you specify in 3 parts of the command, removes it plus everything else up to the file extension, then readds the specified characters.

find . -name '*1984*' -type f -exec sh -c 'mv "$1" "$(echo $1 | sed -E "s/1984(.*)(\.[^\.]+)$/1984\2/")"' _ {} \;

This particular example keys off the year "1984", so that "Exercise 1984 previous version.png" becomes "Exercise 1984.png".

Special characters such as "]" require a "" before it in each of the 3 parts