Last Updated on 2021-10-23 by Clay
If we want to rename a large number of files in batches, in addition to writing script to use mv command, we can also use rename command to set a rule to match the file name (just like regular expression) to rename.
However, the built-in rename command is difference on different systems. In addition to referring to the record below, you also need to test on your environment.
Install rename
Ubuntu
apt install renameCentOS（prename: perl-rename）
yum install prenameMacOS
brew install renameThe usage of rename command
Basic usage
rename "s/STRING/NEW_STRING/" FILEs
Before renaming the file, you can use the -n to view the renamed result. Assuming I have three files F1, F2, F3, etc. I can use the following command to show the rename results:
rename -n "s/F/X/" *
Output:
'F1' would be renamed to 'X1'
'F2' would be renamed to 'X2'
'F3' would be renamed to 'X3'
You can show the rename results without really do that. (Note: * is mean the all files under the directory)
Insert string on the left (Use ^ symbol)
rename "s/^/A/" *
Output:
AF1 AF2 AF3Insert string on the right (Use $ symbol)
rename "s/$/_/" *
Output:
AF1_ AF2_ AF3_Delete the match string
rename "s/A//" *
rename "s/_//" *
Output
F1 F2 F3References
- https://www.howtogeek.com/423214/how-to-use-the-rename-command-on-linux/
- https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-rename-files-in-linux/
- https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/rename.1.html