Challenge with file renaming and dynamic counters to avoid duplicates

[kr0ntab]

Hi there... I'm running into a problem and feel like I'm overlooking something obvious. When using dynamic counters for identical file names, I get one file with double periods before the extension.

Objective:

• Rename a group of image files using the DateTimeOriginal tag.
• If a duplicate file name exists, a 3 digit counter should be added starting with .001 for the first duplicate.
• The first file should not have a counter added, just the date/time value and extension.
• If no duplicate file name, the name should not include a counter value, just the date/time value and extension.

Here's the set of files I'm working on.

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ls -1 example*.jpg                                                               
example_1.jpg
example_2.jpg
example_3.jpg
example_4.jpg
example_5.jpg
example_6.jpg
Tags are as follows:

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exiftool -DateTimeOriginal example*.jpg
======== example_1.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
======== example_2.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
======== example_3.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
======== example_4.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
======== example_5.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
======== example_6.jpg
Date/Time Original              : 2017:06:05 13:00:35
    6 image files read
My exiftool syntax to rename the files is as follows:

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exiftool -d "%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S.%%03c.%%le" "-FileName<DateTimeOriginal" example*.jpg
    6 image files updated

And here you can see that my first file has a period added before the extension in the first file.

Code Select Expand

ls -1 *.jpg                                                                                             
2017-06-05_13-00-35..jpg
2017-06-05_13-00-35.001.jpg
2017-06-05_13-00-35.002.jpg
2017-06-05_13-00-35.003.jpg
2017-06-05_13-00-35.004.jpg
2017-06-05_13-00-35.005.jpg
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

[StarGeek]

The options for a leading separator for the %c variable are either a minus sign, which is indicated with %-c or an underscore, which is %+c. See the Advanced features section of the -w (-TextOut) option for details.

Anything else would require an additional rename command to remove/change characters or a more complex rename using the FileSequence

[kr0ntab]

Ah, okay... I was heading down the path of a post-process rename job, though was hoping there would be some sort of way to specify the leading separator.

This was most helpful. Thank you!