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I need to generate a list of unique file names without their extensions or using the shell script command "find"

Say I have a list such as:

file2022_col.R1.twx.gz
file2022_col.R2.twx.gz
file2022_col.bwa.bam
file2332_col.R1.twx.gz
file2332_col.bwa.bam
file3442_col.bwa.bam.bai

I want a list of unique file names such as:

file2022_col
file2332_col
file3442_col

I'm trying to use find -type f -name but I'm not sure how to construct the option to restrict the find command.

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3 Answers 3

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It is simpler to use cut command to remove filename extensions:

ls -1 | cut -d '.' -f1 | sort | uniq
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  • $\begingroup$ This seems nice and clean, but it will also pick up any directory names. I only want to extract from file names. $\endgroup$
    – Lou_A
    Jul 19, 2022 at 19:05
  • $\begingroup$ ls -1 -p | grep -v '/' could filter directories. The -p flag appends / indicator to directories. Then the -v flag only matches files. $\endgroup$ Jul 21, 2022 at 7:20
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ls | perl -p -n -e  's/(.*)(\..*){1,3}$/$1/' | uniq

or

find . -name "file*" | perl -p -n -e  's/(.*)(\..*){1,3}$/$1/' | uniq

find per se is a really powerful command, but its a while since I've used it full functionality.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, M__. I'll test it. I notice you call perl. I'm hoping to find a way to run it entirely in shell, but this could work too. $\endgroup$
    – Lou_A
    Jun 2, 2022 at 14:29
  • $\begingroup$ Bash has a regex, so it can be rewritten, but dunno if it has the {1,3} syntax $\endgroup$
    – M__
    Jun 2, 2022 at 18:13
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Use find, remove all extensions with perl, and make unique with sort:

find . -type f -printf '%P\n' | perl -pe 's{[.].*}{}' | sort -u

The Perl one-liner uses these command line flags:
-e : Tells Perl to look for code in-line, instead of in a file.
-p : Loop over the input one line at a time, assigning it to $_ by default. Add print $_ after each loop iteration.

s{[.].*}{} : replace [.] (a literal dot), followed by .* (any character repeated 0 or more times) with en empty string.

SEE ALSO:
perldoc perlrun: how to execute the Perl interpreter: command line switches
perldoc perlre: Perl regular expressions (regexes)
perldoc perlre: Perl regular expressions (regexes): Quantifiers; Character Classes and other Special Escapes; Assertions; Capture groups
perldoc perlrequick: Perl regular expressions quick start

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