Comments on: How to Rename Multiple Files on Linux

By: Multiple Mover

Multiple Mover — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 04:58:22 +0000

The rename utility is one way to rename multiple files, but you have overlooked a better alternative — mmv (multiple move) — which also have an important safety feature of not overwriting files due to collisions arising from syntax errors in the target specification.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 09:54:49 +0000

In reply to Roland. Hi Roland, It is really useful example. Sometimes you may need to change a file extension from .txt to .html, .txt to .text , etc...

By: Roland

Roland — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 15:10:24 +0000

Slackware et al also have the not-so-good version of rename. Luckily, the version in Deb/buntu/Mint is actually a perl script, so it and its manpage are portable.
I don’t understand the ‘change file type’ example. Is it trying to replace filename extensions? They are an MS thing and shouldn’t be used to determine file type. Gnome, looking at you. See ‘man magic’ for the details on linux/unix filetypes.

By: ollycat

ollycat — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 12:29:45 +0000

If I using example from the text I have this:

rename -nv ‘s/file*/our $i; sprintf(“name%03d.txt”, 1+$i++)/e’ *
file1 -> name001.txt1
file2 -> name002.txt2
file3 -> name003.txt3
file4 -> name004.txt4

But if I use only “.*” I have correct names:

rename -nv ‘s/.*/our $i; sprintf(“name%03d.txt”, 1+$i++)/e’ *
file1 -> name001.txt
file2 -> name002.txt
file3 -> name003.txt
file4 -> name004.txt

I don’t understand why. :(

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 08:58:05 +0000

From Gnome 3.22 and forward, this is a built in feature in their filemanager (nautilus). Just select multiple files, right click and select “Rename…”.