1RENAME(1) User Commands RENAME(1)
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6 rename - rename files
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9 rename [options] expression replacement file...
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12 rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first occur‐
13 rence of expression in their name by replacement.
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16 -s, --symlink
17 Do not rename a symlink but its target.
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19 -v, --verbose
20 Show which files were renamed, if any.
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22 -n, --no-act
23 Do not make any changes.
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25 -o, --no-overwrite
26 Do not overwrite existing files. When --symlink is active, do
27 not overwrite symlinks pointing to existing targets.
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29 -V, --version
30 Display version information and exit.
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32 -h, --help
33 Display help text and exit.
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36 Given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands
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38 rename foo foo00 foo?
39 rename foo foo0 foo??
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41 will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278. And
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43 rename .htm .html *.htm
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45 will fix the extension of your html files. Provide an empty string for
46 shortening:
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48 rename '_with_long_name' '' file_with_long_name.*
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50 will remove the substring in the filenames.
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53 The renaming has no safeguards except the --no-act option. If the user
54 has permission to rewrite file names, the command will perform the
55 action without any questions. For example, the result can be quite
56 drastic when the command is run as root in the /lib directory. Always
57 make a backup before running the command, unless you truly know what
58 you are doing.
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61 0 all requested rename operations were successful
62 1 all rename operations failed
63 2 some rename operations failed
64 4 nothing was renamed
65 64 unanticipated error occurred
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68 mv(1)
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71 The rename command is part of the util-linux package and is available
72 from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
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76util-linux June 2011 RENAME(1)