NAME
rename - rename files
SYNOPSIS
rename [options] expression replacement file...
DESCRIPTION
rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of expression in their name by replacement.
OPTIONS
-s, --symlink
-v, --verbose
-n, --no-act
-a, --all
-l, --last
-o, --no-overwrite
-i, --interactive
-h, --help
-V, --version
WARNING
The renaming has no safeguards by default or without any one of the options --no-overwrite, --interactive or --no-act. If the user has permission to rewrite file names, the command will perform the action without any questions. For example, the result can be quite drastic when the command is run as root in the /lib directory. Always make a backup before running the command, unless you truly know what you are doing.
EDGE CASES
If the expression is empty, then by default replacement will be added to the start of the filename. With --all, replacement will be inserted in between every two characters of the filename, as well as at the start and end.
Normally, only the final path component of a filename is updated. (Or with --symlink, only the final path component of the link.) But if either expression or replacement contains a /, the full path is updated. This can cause a file to be moved between folders. Creating folders, and moving files between filesystems, is not supported.
INTERACTIVE MODE
As most standard utilities rename can be used with a terminal device (tty in short) in canonical mode, where the line is buffered by the tty and you press ENTER to validate the user input. If you put your tty in cbreak mode however, rename requires only a single key press to answer the prompt. To set cbreak mode, run for example:
sh -c 'stty -icanon min 1; "$0" "$@"; stty icanon' rename -i from to filesEXIT STATUS
0
1
2
4
64
EXAMPLES
Given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands
rename foo foo00 foo?
rename foo foo0 foo??will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278. And
rename .htm .html *.htmwill fix the extension of your html files. Provide an empty string for shortening:
rename '_with_long_name' '' file_with_long_name.*will remove the substring in the filenames.
SEE ALSO
mv(1)
REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
AVAILABILITY
The rename command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.