rename and shorten many files with bash

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Bash supports a surprising number of string manipulation functions.

For example if you want to get rid of the beginning of the name of a file or a folder on many files at a time you could do the following:

 
bash> ls
mylongfile1
mylongfile2
mylongfile3
mylongfile4
mylongfile5
mylongfile6
mylongfile7
 
bash> for i in *
> do
> mv $i ${i:6}
> done
bash> ls
file1
file2
file3
file4
file5
file6
file7