In any UNIX-like shell, when you specify a filename glob (i.e. a filename with wildcards) on the shell commandline, it is the shell, and not the program you are calling, which expands the glob.

So yes, when you call

rename.pl *.txt
the shell expands the *.txt to all matching files, and the Perl script finds the already expanded args in its @ARGV.

If you want the script to do the glob expansion, you'd have to enclose the argument in single quotes, i.e. call it like this:

somescript.pl '*.txt'

Then the Perl script finds exactly one arg in @ARGV, namely *.txt and you would have to find some way to do the expansion.

With Larry's script however, I typically feed it ALL the files by matching *; it will only act on those files which max the regexp given as the first argument anyway, all others are skipped. Of course that requires some care in constructing the regexp.

In reply to Re^3: Simple Perl file rename by wnpaul
in thread Simple Perl file rename by Anonymous Monk

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