We need to use the find command to provide awk with the filenames. The output of ls cannot distinguish them well. This is because a filename could contain whitespace, tabs, or even linebreaks. We should note that, when we write shell scripts, we shouldn’t parse the output of ls. We can use the find command to pipe the filenames to awk as input: $ find. This can be used in place of the -nv options of rename and prename. There is no “dry-run” option for awk, however, if we remove the “ | sh“, awk will print all generated mv commands to stdout without executing them. We can pipe awk generated mv commands to the shell to do bulk renaming: awk '.' | sh Please bear in mind that the “.” after the find command denotes the current directory.Īwk is a powerful text-processing utility. In our case, all files with names containing “ backup” are targeted. The -exec argument tells find to execute rename for every matching file found. Log1-backup.xml log1.txt log2-backup.xml log2.txt log3.txt log4.txt Log1-backup.txt log1.txt log2-backup.txt log2.txt log3.txt log4.txt ![]() It looks for the first occurrence of txt in each filename, and replaces it with log.Īlternatively, we can use rename with the find command to target specific files: $ ls The rename command is pretty straightforward. log *.txtįile1.log file2.log file3.log file4.log file5.log ![]() Now, let’s use the rename command to rename our. This is because there is no “undo” or “restore” option for a bulk renaming operation. It is recommended to always do a dry-run to make sure that the changes are correct. The rename command with “ -nv” options shows the mistake clearly and gives us a chance to correct the command. If you need a powerful way to rename multiple files at once and you’re just not up for mastering the Command Prompt or PowerShell commands, you can always turn to a third-party utility.In this example, when we typed the command line, we had an extra dot in front of the replacement “ log” by mistake. Rename Multiple Files Using a Third Party App You can learn more about PowerShell in general from our Geek School guide, and learn more about the rename-item commandlet from Microsoft’s TechNet Library. And, of course, you can also build more complicated commandlet structures that even include IF/THEN logic. For example, the rename-item commandlet also offers features like a -recurse switch that can apply the commandlet to files in a folder and all folders nested inside that folder, a -force switch that can force renaming for files that are locked or otherwise unavailable, and even a -whatif switch that describes what would happen if the commandlet was executed (without actually executing it). RELATED: Geek School: Learn How to Automate Windows with PowerShellĪs you might expect, PowerShell offers tremendous power when it comes to naming your files and we’re only scratching the surface here. The rest of the commandlet just signifies that any space ( " " ) should be replaced by an underscore ( "_" ). ![]() The -replace switch indicates that a replacement is going to happen. The $_.name part stands in for each of the files getting piped. The dir part of that commandlet lists all the files in the folder and pipes them (that’s the | symbol) to the rename-item commandlet. From the “File” menu, point to “Open Windows PowerShell,” and then select “Open Windows Powershell.”ĭir | rename-item -NewName The quickest way to open a PowerShell window at your desired location is to first open the folder in File Explorer. Pipe the output of Dir to Rename-Item and you’re in business. Using PowerShell, you can pipe the output of one command-known as a “commandlet” in PowerShell terms-to another command, just like you can on Linux and other UNIX-like systems. The two important commands you’ll need are Dir, which lists the files in the current directory, and Rename-Item, which renames an item (a file, in this case). ![]() PowerShell offers even more flexibility for renaming files in a command-line environment. If you’re interested, the folks over at the Lagmonster forums have an excellent writeup on the subject. RELATED: How to Write a Batch Script on WindowsĪnd this only begins to address the kinds of command line wizardy you can get into if you want to build more complicated commands-or even batch scripts-by weaving other commands and conditionals into things. html extension to use the same file name and same first three letters only of the file extension, which ends up cutting the “l” off of all the extensions in the folder. This tells Windows to rename all files with the.
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