rename - renames multiple files
rename [ -h|-m|-V ] [ -v ] [ -0 ] [ -n ] [ -f ] [ -d ] [ -u [enc]] [ -e|-E perlexpr]*|perlexpr [ files ]
rename renames the filenames supplied according to the rule specified as the first argument. The perlexpr argument is a Perl expression which is expected to modify the $_ string in Perl for at least some of the filenames specified. If a given filename is not modified by the expression, it will not be renamed. If no filenames are given on the command line, filenames will be read via standard input.
rename
$_
For example, to rename all files matching *.bak to strip the extension, you might say
*.bak
rename -- 's/\.bak$//' *.bak
To translate uppercase names to lower, you'd use
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' ./*
Examples rewritten to avoid globs which could inject options.
You can also use rename to move files between directories, possibly at the same time as making other changes (but see --filename)
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/;s/^/my_new_dir\//' ./*.*
You can also write the statements separately (see -e/-E)
rename -E 'y/A-Z/a-z/' -E 's/^/my_new_dir\//' -- *.*
Verbose: print names of files successfully renamed.
Use \0 as record separator when reading from STDIN.
No action: print names of files to be renamed, but don't rename.
Over write: allow existing files to be over-written.
Rename full path: including any directory component. DEFAULT
Do not rename directory: only rename filename component of path.
Help: print SYNOPSIS and OPTIONS.
Manual: print manual page.
Version: show version number.
Treat filenames as perl (unicode) strings when running the user-supplied code.
Decode/encode filenames using encoding, if present.
encoding is optional: if omitted, the next argument should be an option starting with '-', for instance -e.
Expression: code to act on files name.
May be repeated to build up code (like perl -e). If no -e, the first argument is used as code.
perl -e
Statement: code to act on files name, as -e but terminated by ';'.
No environment variables are used.
Larry Wall
mv(1), perl(1)
If you give an invalid Perl expression you'll get a syntax error.
The original rename did not check for the existence of target filenames, so had to be used with care.
To install File::Rename, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm File::Rename
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install File::Rename
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.