Bash Linux - Massive Folder Rename

Batch renaming files with Bash

You could use bash's parameter expansion feature

for i in ./*.pkg ; do mv "$i" "${i/-[0-9.]*.pkg/.pkg}" ; done

Quotes are needed for filenames with spaces.

Shell/Bash shortcut for bulk renaming of files in a folder

I would suggest something like this:

for i in *-doc-*.txt; do mv "$i" "${i/*-doc-/doc-}"; done

${i/*-doc-/doc-} replaces the first occurrence of *-doc- with doc-.

If you need to do more than one replacement (see comment number 1), you need to use the ${var//Pattern/Replacement} variant. If you need to replace the beginning of the name you need to use ${var/#Pattern/Replacement}, if you need to replace the end (ie: the extension) you need to use the ${var/%Pattern/Replacement} form.

See Shell Parameter Expansion for more details. This expansion is bash specific.

Renaming files in a folder to sequential numbers

Try to use a loop, let, and printf for the padding:

a=1
for i in *.jpg; do
  new=$(printf "%04d.jpg" "$a") #04 pad to length of 4
  mv -i -- "$i" "$new"
  let a=a+1
done

using the -i flag prevents automatically overwriting existing files, and using -- prevents mv from interpreting filenames with dashes as options.

Rename all files in directory from $filename_h to $filename_half?

Just use bash, no need to call external commands.

for file in *_h.png
do
  mv "$file" "${file/_h.png/_half.png}"
done

Do not add #!/bin/sh

For those that need that one-liner:

for file in *.png; do mv "$file" "${file/_h.png/_half.png}"; done

Find multiple files and rename them in Linux

You can use find to find all matching files recursively:

$ find . -iname "*dbg*" -exec rename _dbg.txt .txt '{}' \;

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EDIT: what the '{}' and \; are?

The -exec argument makes find execute rename for every matching file found. '{}' will be replaced with the path name of the file. The last token, \; is there only to mark the end of the exec expression.

All that is described nicely in the man page for find:

 -exec utility [argument ...] ;
         True if the program named utility returns a zero value as its
         exit status.  Optional arguments may be passed to the utility.
         The expression must be terminated by a semicolon (``;'').  If you
         invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if
         the shell would otherwise treat it as a control operator.  If the
         string ``{}'' appears anywhere in the utility name or the argu-
         ments it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
         Utility will be executed from the directory from which find was
         executed.  Utility and arguments are not subject to the further
         expansion of shell patterns and constructs.

How do I rename all folders and files to lowercase on Linux?

A concise version using the "rename" command:

find my_root_dir -depth -exec rename 's/(.*)\/([^\/]*)/$1\/\L$2/' {} \;

This avoids problems with directories being renamed before files and trying to move files into non-existing directories (e.g. "A/A" into "a/a").

Or, a more verbose version without using "rename".

for SRC in `find my_root_dir -depth`
do
    DST=`dirname "${SRC}"`/`basename "${SRC}" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
    if [ "${SRC}" != "${DST}" ]
    then
        [ ! -e "${DST}" ] && mv -T "${SRC}" "${DST}" || echo "${SRC} was not renamed"
    fi
done

P.S.

The latter allows more flexibility with the move command (for example, "svn mv").

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