Shell script for converting a batch of files using pandoc. This script will take two arguments: source extension, and target extension. pandoc will attempt to guess the formats.

pandoc-bulk.sh

# pandoc-bulk.sh
#
# This script was created to convert a directory full
# of files into a different format. It uses pandoc to do the conversion.
#
# 1. Install pandoc from http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/
# 2. Copy this script into the directory containing the files
# 3. Ensure that the script has execute permissions: chmod +x pandoc-bulk.sh
# 4. Run the script
#
# By default this will keep the original file

# Usage: pandoc-bulk.sh <source_extension> <target_extension>
# eg. pandoc-bulk.sh rtf md

# $1 = extension of source files
# $2 = extension of target files

source_ext=$1
target_ext=$2

source_files=*.$source_ext

echo "-- Converting $source_ext to $target_ext in `pwd`"

for source_filename in $source_files
do
  # extension="${f##*.}"
  filename="${source_filename%.*}"
  target_filename="$filename.$target_ext"
  echo " - $source_filename"
  echo " + $target_filename"
  pandoc -s -o "$target_filename" "$source_filename"
  # uncomment this line to delete the source file.
  # rm $source_filename
done