July 12, 2023

Rename multiple files from the command line with rename.ul

To rename an occurence in multiple files run:

   $ rename.ul expression replacement files

where expression is the occurence of the expression to be replaced; replacement the part of the expression that will be replaced; and files the name of the files.

For example, if you want to replace IMG by _IMG in all the files starting by IMG, run

$ rename.ul IMG _IMG IMG*

Another example:

$ rename.ul foo foo00 foo?

and

    $ rename.ul foo foo0 foo??

will turn the files foo1, …, foo9, foo10, …, foo278 into foo001, …, foo009, foo010, …, foo278¹.

Also:

     $ rename.ul .htm .html *.htm

will fix the extension of your html files².

And:

     $ rename '_with_long_name' '' [filenames]*

will remove the substring in the filenames.

Run $ man rename.ul to display the manual and see the options.

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1. Example from the man page.↩︎

2. Ibid.↩︎

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