Pattern based, batch file rename in terminal

The solution to the above example, using rename:

rename -v -n 's/file_\d{1,3}/upl/' file_*.png

Usage:

rename [options] [Perl regex search/replace expression] [files]

From man rename:

   -v, --verbose
           Verbose: print names of files successfully renamed.
   -n, --no-act
           No Action: show what files would have been renamed.

rename MAY take regex as the arguments.

What we are looking at is the content between the single quotes '. You can place regex separated by /.

Formula: s/(1)/(2)/ where (1) = search pattern, and (2) = replace pattern.

So, familiarize youself with regex, and enjoy pattern based batch file renaming!

This can be done with little magic of bash parameter expansion!

for f in file_[0-9]*_*; do mv $f upl_${f#file_[0-9]*_}; done

file_[0-9]*_*; - First pattern is used to go trough all files that begin with 'file_anynumber_'
${f#file_[0-9]*_} - The second pattern file_[0-9]*_ is used in parameter expansion which tells bash to remove 'file_anynumber_' from the begging of the string.

For more information on Parameter expansion:

man bash

if files are in severals directories, use rename after a find like :

find -iname file_*.png -type f -exec rename -n 's/file_[0-9]{3}(.*\.png)/upl$1/' {} \;

the -n after rename is to test, remove it to proceed !-)

like this, you associate find and rename power.

Personally, I used it to rename sources header .h to .hpp

find -iname *.h -type f -exec rename 's/(.*\.)h/$1hpp/' {} \;