[SOLVED] rename files in terminal

kentfoo · 01-10-2013, 02:09 AM

when I use win7, I can rename files like this:
C:\>rename *.bak *.txt
how to do this in linux?
------------------------
kent$mv *.bak *.txt
it does not work.

jmc1987 · 01-10-2013, 02:42 AM

I'm sure there is more than 1 way to do it but I do it like this

Quote:

$ mv thisFile.txt thatfile.txt

for documentation on mv

Quote:

$ man mv

the $ represents a user shell.

NevemTeve · 01-10-2013, 02:52 AM

You want to change the extension of a group of files? It isn't that simple as it is in WinDos:

Code:

for i in *.bak
    do mv -- "$i" "${i%.bak}.txt"
done

rosehosting.com · 01-10-2013, 03:06 AM

To rename all *.bak files to *.txt, execute the following command:

rename .bak .txt *.bak

kentfoo · 01-10-2013, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmc1987

I'm sure there is more than 1 way to do it but I do it like this

for documentation on mv

the $ represents a user shell.

not only one file...so I have to mv mv mv mv....

Quote:

Originally Posted by NevemTeve

You want to change the extension of a group of files? It isn't that simple as it is in WinDos:

Code:

for i in *.bak
    do mv -- "$i" "${i%.bak}.txt"
done

it works! thx!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosehosting.com

To rename all *.bak files to *.txt, execute the following command:

rename .bak .txt *.bak

perfect! very cool.

jmc1987 · 01-10-2013, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kentfoo

not only one file...so I have to mv mv mv mv....

Sorry I misread your question. Bash script would be easiest but for fun and games I wrote a poopy perl script for practice.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

print "Directory Path: ";
my $dir_path=<>;
print "Old extention: ";
my $oldext=<>;
print "New Extenstion: ";
my $newext=<>;
chomp ($dir_path, $oldext, $newext);
my $dir;
my @files;
opendir $dir,$dir_path || die "could not open $dir_path $!\n";
while (readdir $dir){
    if ($_ =~ m/$oldext$/ and ! -d "$dir_path/$_"){
	push @files, $_;
    }
}
closedir $dir;

for (@files){
    my $newname = (split(/\./,$_))[0].$newext;
    unless (rename "$dir_path/$_", "$dir_path/$newname"){
	warn "$_ File could not be renamed \"$!\"\n";
    }
}

Needs some tweaking though.

David the H. · 01-11-2013, 05:34 AM

Please try doing a forum search before you post common questions like this. There must be hundreds of previous threads discussing how to bulk-rename files.

colucix · 01-11-2013, 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosehosting.com

To rename all *.bak files to *.txt, execute the following command:

rename .bak .txt *.bak

Maybe it's worth to mention that there are two versions of the rename command. The one mentioned here is usually available on RPM based systems and come from the util-linux-ng package. The syntax is

Code:

rename from to [files]

where from and two are the matching and replacement strings respectively. The other one is usually available on DEB based systems and it is a perl script that uses regular expressions and sed-like commands to perform its task:

Code:

rename [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] perlexpr [ files ]

In this case the correct command line would be:

Code:

rename 's/\.bak$/.txt/' *.bak