Command Line Batch Rename Files

playdafunkimuzic · 2009-07-22 17:36:04

Hi,

How can one batch rename files from the command line. E.g. if there's a bunch of files called a1.jpg, a2.jpg, a3.jpg, a4.jpg, a5.jpg etc...rename all the a's to b's or something of the sort. Thanks!

devnet · 2009-07-22 18:14:16

If you are using KDE, try krename.

If you are using XFCE, thunar has a bulk rename plugin.

Another option is to install gprename which should be available in the pacman community repo.

I'm not sure about Gnome, cuz I don't use it

brisbin33 · 2009-07-22 18:22:24

in a simple situation like this:

rename a b *.jpg

in a more complicated situation:

for file in $(find ./ -name '*.jpg'); do
  new="$(echo "$file" | sed 's/a/b/g')"
  mv -iv "$file" "$new"
done

the second way is recursive and extremely powerful with adjustments to the find and sed options; the first is for quick and simple just-some-files-in-this-directory renaming.

Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-07-22 18:54:49)

Hrwa · 2009-07-23 14:43:40

If you use vim, renamer script can be very useful:

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1721

windtalker · 2009-07-23 15:16:32

A little more indepth bash script:

http://www.moxleystratton.com/articles/ … files-bash

quarkup · 2009-07-23 19:40:26

there is a tool for that in AUR (file-rename-utils)

timttmy · 2009-07-23 20:24:36

I've used Batren in the past for renumbering photos. I found it on a Linux Format cover disk, many moons ago.
http://batren.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/blis.cgi

Ogion · 2010-04-23 17:41:04

One addendum to brisbins post. If you do the loop with command substituted find/ls, spaces in filenames will break the loop (well actually it will silently fail on you because it splits on whitespace too, thus thinking the parts of the filename with spaces are differentt filenames). If you want to use a loop with command substitution and filenames with spaces set the variable IFS to just tab and newline (in zsh you do this by IFS=$'\t\n' i think in bash it works like that too, but i'm not sure)

Ogion

Edit: a very nice article i once found and read (it's long though..) about this topic..

Last edited by Ogion (2010-04-23 17:43:39)

brisbin33 · 2010-04-23 18:11:43

Ogion wrote:

One addendum to brisbins post. If you do the loop with command substituted find/ls, spaces in filenames will break the loop (well actually it will silently fail on you because it splits on whitespace too, thus thinking the parts of the filename with spaces are differentt filenames). If you want to use a loop with command substitution and filenames with spaces set the variable IFS to just tab and newline (in zsh you do this by IFS=$'\t\n' i think in bash it works like that too, but i'm not sure)

one pretty clean (bash) approach:

while IFS=$'\n' read -r file; do

  # what you want with "$file"

done < <(find ./ -depth -options)

filenames w/o newlines is an assumption i'm willing to make.

-depth is important; find will work bottom up so you can change parent directories without choking on subsequent changes to their children. man find for other options to both increase power and prevent unintended consequences.

edit: content removed for clarity -- i talk to much.

Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-04-23 19:03:28)

firecat53 · 2010-04-23 19:13:53

Try 'prename' from the aur...

then if you have files test1.txt test2.txt test3.txt, you can renmae by:

prename 's/test/joe/' test*txt

to get joe1.txt joe2.txt joe3.txt

Scott

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-22 17:36:04

Command Line Batch Rename Files

#2 2009-07-22 18:14:16

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#3 2009-07-22 18:22:24

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#4 2009-07-23 14:43:40

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#5 2009-07-23 15:16:32

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#6 2009-07-23 19:40:26

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#7 2009-07-23 20:24:36

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#8 2010-04-23 17:41:04

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#9 2010-04-23 18:11:43

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

#10 2010-04-23 19:13:53

Re: Command Line Batch Rename Files

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