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 \-n , " \-\-no\-act"
  26 Do not make any changes.
  27 .TP
  28 .BR \-o , " \-\-no\-overwrite"
  29 Do not overwrite existing files.
  30 .TP
  31 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  32 Display version information and exit.
  33 .TP
  34 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
  35 Display help text and exit.
  36 .SH EXAMPLES
  37 Given the files
  38 .IR foo1 ", ..., " foo9 ", " foo10 ", ..., " foo278 ,
  39 the commands
  40 .RS
  41 .PP
  42 .nf
  43 rename foo foo0 foo?
  44 rename foo foo0 foo??
  45 .fi
  46 .PP
  47 .RE
  48 will turn them into
  49 .IR foo001 ", ..., " foo009 ", " foo010 ", ..., " foo278 .
  50 And
  51 .RS
  52 .PP
  53 .nf
  54 rename .htm .html *.htm
  55 .fi
  56 .PP
  57 .RE
  58 will fix the extension of your html files.
  59 Provide an empty string for shortening:
  60 .RS
  61 .PP
  62 .nf
  63 rename '_with_long_name' '' file_with_long_name.*
  64 .fi
  65 .PP
  66 .RE
  67 will remove the substring in the filenames.
  68 .SH WARNING
  69 The renaming has no safeguards except the
  70 .B \-\-no\-act
  71 option.  If the user has
  72 permission to rewrite file names, the command will perform the action without
  73 any questions.  For example, the result can be quite drastic when the command
  74 is run as root in the /lib directory.  Always make a backup before running the
  75 command, unless you truly know what you are doing.
  76 .SH "EXIT STATUS"
  77 .RS
  78 .PD 0
  79 .TP
  80 .B 0
  81 all requested rename operations were successful
  82 .TP
  83 .B 1
  84 all rename operations failed
  85 .TP
  86 .B 2
  87 some rename operations failed
  88 .TP
  89 .B 4
  90 nothing was renamed
  91 .TP
  92 .B 64
  93 unanticipated error occurred
  94 .PD
  95 .RE
  96 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  97 .BR mv (1)
  98 .SH AVAILABILITY
  99 The rename command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 100 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.