misc-utils/rename.1

   1 .\" Written by Andries E. Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
   2 .\" Placed in the public domain
   3 .\"
   4 .TH RENAME 1 "June 2011" "util-linux" "User Commands"
   5 .SH NAME
   6 rename \- rename files
   7 .SH SYNOPSIS
   8 .B rename
   9 [options]
  10 .IR "expression replacement file" ...
  11 .SH DESCRIPTION
  12 .B rename
  13 will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of
  14 .I expression
  15 in their name by
  16 .IR replacement .
  17 .SH OPTIONS
  18 .TP
  19 .BR \-s , " \-\-symlink"
  20 Do not rename a symlink but its target.
  21 .TP
  22 .BR \-v , " \-\-verbose"
  23 Show which files where renamed, if any.
  24 .TP
  25 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  26 Display version information and exit.
  27 .TP
  28 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
  29 Display help text and exit.
  30 .SH EXAMPLES
  31 Given the files
  32 .IR foo1 ", ..., " foo9 ", " foo10 ", ..., " foo278 ,
  33 the commands
  34 .RS
  35 .PP
  36 .nf
  37 rename foo foo0 foo?
  38 rename foo foo0 foo??
  39 .fi
  40 .PP
  41 .RE
  42 will turn them into
  43 .IR foo001 ", ..., " foo009 ", " foo010 ", ..., " foo278 .
  44 And
  45 .RS
  46 .PP
  47 .nf
  48 rename .htm .html *.htm
  49 .fi
  50 .PP
  51 .RE
  52 will fix the extension of your html files.
  53 .SH WARNING
  54 The renaming has no safeguards.  If the user has permission to rewrite file names,
  55 the command will perform the action without any questions.  For example, the
  56 result can be quite drastic when the command is run as root in the /lib
  57 directory.  Always make a backup before running the command, unless you truly
  58 know what you are doing.
  59 .SH "EXIT STATUS"
  60 .RS
  61 .PD 0
  62 .TP
  63 .B 0
  64 all requested rename operations were successful
  65 .TP
  66 .B 1
  67 all rename operations failed
  68 .TP
  69 .B 2
  70 some rename operations failed
  71 .TP
  72 .B 4
  73 nothing was renamed
  74 .TP
  75 .B 64
  76 unanticipated error occurred
  77 .PD
  78 .RE
  79 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  80 .BR mv (1)
  81 .SH AVAILABILITY
  82 The rename command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
  83 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.