Rename all files in a folder with a prefix in a si

Question

Rename all the files within a folder with prefix “Unix_” i.e. suppose a folder has two files a.txt and b.pdf, then they both should be renamed from a single command to Unix_a.txt and Unix_b.pdf

Answer 1

I recently faced this same situation and found an easier inbuilt solution. I am sharing it here so that it might help other people looking for solution.

With OS X Yosemite, Apple has integrated the batch renaming capabilities directly into Finder. Details information is available here. I have copied the steps below as well,

Rename multiple items

1. Select the items, then Control-click one of them.

2. In the shortcut menu, select Rename Items.

3. In the pop-up menu below Rename Folder Items, choose to replace text in the names, add text to the names, or change the name format.

   • Replace text: Enter the text you want to remove in the Find field, then enter the text you want to add in the “Replace with” field.

   • Add text: Enter the text to you want to add in the field, then choose to add the text before or after the current name.

   • Format: Choose a name format for the files, then choose to put the index, counter, or date before or after the name. Enter a name in the Custom Format field, then enter the number you want to start with.

4. Click Rename.

If you have a common pattern in your files than you can use Replace text otherwise Add text would also do the job.

Answer 2

You can just use -i instead of -I {}

ls | xargs -i mv {} unix_{}

This also works perfectly.

• ls - lists all the files in the directory
• xargs - accepts all files line by line due to the -i option
• {} is the placeholder for all files, necessary if xargs gets more than two arguments as input

Using awk:

ls -lrt | grep '^-' | awk '{print "mv "$9" unix_"$9""}' | sh

Answer 3

Try the rename command in the folder with the files:

rename 's/^/Unix_/' *

The argument of rename (sed s command) indicates to replace the regex ^ with Unix_. The caret (^) is a special character that means start of the line.

Answer 4

I think this is just what you'er looking for:

ls | xargs -I {} mv {} Unix_{}

Yes, it is simple, elegant and powerful, and alos oneline-comand of courese. You can get more detailed intro from me on the page:Rename Files and Directories (Add Prefix)

Answer 5

Also works for items with spaces and ignores directories

for f in *; do [[ -f "$f" ]] && mv "$f" "unix_$f"; done

Answer 6

Situation:

We have certificate.key certificate.crt inside /user/ssl/

We want to rename anything that starts with certificate to certificate_OLD

We are now located inside /user

First, you do a dry run with -n:

rename -n "s/certificate/certificate_old/" ./ssl/*

Which returns:

rename(./ssl/certificate.crt, ./ssl/certificate_OLD.crt) rename(./ssl/certificate.key, ./ssl/certificate_OLD.key)

Your files will be unchanged this is just a test run.

Solution:

When your happy with the result of the test run it for real:

rename "s/certificate/certificate_OLD/" ./ssl/*

What it means:

`rename "s/ SOMETHING / SOMETING_ELSE " PATH/FILES

Tip:

If you are already on the path run it like this:

rename "s/certificate/certificate_OLD/" *

Or if you want to do this in any sub-directory starting with ss do:

rename -n "s/certificat/certificate_old/" ./ss*/*

You can also do:

rename -n "s/certi*/certificate_old/" ./ss*/*

Which renames anything starting with certi in any sub-directory starting with ss.

The sky is the limit.

Play around with regex and ALWAYS test this BEFORE with -n.

WATCH OUT THIS WILL EVEN RENAME FOLDER NAMES THAT MATCH. Better cd into the directory and do it there. USE AT OWN RISK.