adding date to beginning of file name using script

Question

I have multiple files that need to be renamed with a date added to the beginning of the file name that I am trying to script.

I'm using the cp command because I need to keep the original file

I need the file to be YYYYMMDDfile.txt

I have used every timestamp configuration (date '+%Y%m%d') but am having no luck. I have no problems adding timestamp to end of file name just the beginning. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Not sure what you are doing wrong but the following works:

for i in *; do cp "$i" $(date '+%Y%m%d')"$i"; done

(you should only run this once in a directory)