HowTo: Use Thunar's Bulk Rename with Dolphin

drtebi · 2014-12-21 02:44:55

I thought I would post a quick note here on how to use Thunar's Bulk Rename tool with KDE's Dolphin file browser.

Background
I am aware of KRename, but frankly, I find it a bit too complex. I prefer Bulk Rename because it is simpler, and because I often use regular expressions to rename files, which I find a bit quicker to accomplish with Bulk Rename than with KRename.

Prerequisites
Before getting started, one should make sure that dolphin and thunar are installed. This can simply be checked with the following pacman command:

pacman -Qs 'thunar|dolphin'

The output on should be similar to this:

local/kdebase-dolphin 4.14.3-1 (kde kdebase)
    File Manager
local/kdesdk-dolphin-plugins 4.14.3-1 (kde kdesdk)
    Extra Dolphin plugins
local/thunar 1.6.3-2 (xfce4)
    Modern file manager for Xfce
local/thunar-volman 0.8.0-2 (xfce4)
    Automatic management of removeable devices in Thunar

KDE Service Menu Entries
A kde service menu entry is, in most simple terms and for the purpose of this 'HowTo', a file that defines an option that can be added to e.g. dolphin's right-click menu. These services are by default in:

/usr/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus/

... but one can also add a service to the local configuration, which I recommend, unless you want the Bulk Rename feature to appear system wide.

To add a service entry locally, open a Terminal and create the 'ServiceMenus' directory if it doesn't exist yet:

cd ~/.kde4/share/kde4/services/
mkdir ServiceMenus
cd ServiceMenus

Finally create the service entry that will make 'Bulk Rename' appear as a right-click option in dolphin. To do so, use your favorite text editor and create a file called 'bulk-rename.desktop' with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Service
ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin
MimeType=all/all;
Actions=BulkRename;
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
X-KDE-Priority=TopLevel

[Desktop Action BulkRename]
Name=Bulk Rename
Exec=thunar -B %U

Save this file as 'bulk-rename.desktop' in the previously created service menus directory (~/.kde4/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus), and you're done!

Be sure to restart dolphin if it was already running. Select a couple of files (it works with folders, too), right-click, and select 'Bulk Rename'. Thunar's Bulk Rename will pop up with the selected files, ready for your renaming actions.

Cheers,
DrTebi

fsckd · 2014-12-21 03:13:52

Thanks for wriitng that. I suggest adding it to the wiki. That way the community can help maintain it.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-12-21 02:44:55

HowTo: Use Thunar's Bulk Rename with Dolphin

#2 2014-12-21 03:13:52

Re: HowTo: Use Thunar's Bulk Rename with Dolphin

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