1RENAME(1)                        User Commands                       RENAME(1)
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NAME

6       rename - rename files
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SYNOPSIS

9       rename [options] expression replacement file...
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DESCRIPTION

12       rename will rename the specified files by replacing the first
13       occurrence of expression in their name by replacement.
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OPTIONS

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; add --verbose to see what would be made.
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25       -o, --no-overwrite
26           Do not overwrite existing files. When --symlink is active, do not
27           overwrite symlinks pointing to existing targets.
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29       -i, --interactive
30           Ask before overwriting existing files.
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32       -V, --version
33           Display version information and exit.
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35       -h, --help
36           Display help text and exit.
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WARNING

39       The renaming has no safeguards by default or without any one of the
40       options --no-overwrite, --interactive or --no-act. If the user has
41       permission to rewrite file names, the command will perform the action
42       without any questions. For example, the result can be quite drastic
43       when the command is run as root in the /lib directory. Always make a
44       backup before running the command, unless you truly know what you are
45       doing.
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INTERACTIVE MODE

48       As most standard utilities rename can be used with a terminal device
49       (tty in short) in canonical mode, where the line is buffered by the tty
50       and you press ENTER to validate the user input. If you put your tty in
51       cbreak mode however, rename requires only a single key press to answer
52       the prompt. To set cbreak mode, run for example:
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54           sh -c 'stty -icanon min 1; "$0" "$@"; stty icanon' rename -i from to files
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EXIT STATUS

57       0
58           all requested rename operations were successful
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60       1
61           all rename operations failed
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63       2
64           some rename operations failed
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66       4
67           nothing was renamed
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69       64
70           unanticipated error occurred
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EXAMPLES

73       Given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands
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75           rename foo foo00 foo?
76           rename foo foo0 foo??
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78       will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278. And
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80           rename .htm .html *.htm
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82       will fix the extension of your html files. Provide an empty string for
83       shortening:
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85           rename '_with_long_name' '' file_with_long_name.*
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87       will remove the substring in the filenames.
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SEE ALSO

90       mv(1)
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REPORTING BUGS

93       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
94       https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.
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AVAILABILITY

97       The rename command is part of the util-linux package which can be
98       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
99       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
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103util-linux 2.37.2                 2021-08-16                         RENAME(1)