>>copy to myfilename.asc type sdf
>>dele all
>>pack
>>modi stru
>>{change offending fieldname}
>>append from myfilename.asc type sdf
>
>Well, if you do modi stru in manual mode, this is not a problem because we'll see which field has to change and click on the correct one.
>
>In my case, this will be run in batch mode to extract some data.

use MyDBF
copy to myfilename.asc type sdf
copy stru extended to tempstru
use tempstru
index on field_name tag field_name

** Here you do a scan and change the field names that are duplicates

set safety off
create MyDBF from tempstru
erase tempstru.dbf
erase tempstru.cdx
append from myfilename.asc type sdf

If the MyDBF is not very big, it works fine.

Vlad