Ubuntu – Bulk rename files

batch-renamecommand line

I have a number of files:

10.3.100.179_01_20161018_230014_5335.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_231514_0814.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_233014_5706.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_234514_0896.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_230114_5395.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_231614_1145.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_233114_6047.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_234614_0547.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_230114_5492.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_231614_1264.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_233114_6146.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_234614_0658.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_230214_5630.jpg
10.3.100.179_01_20161018_231714_7135.jpg

I want to rename with this format:

10.4.100.135_01_20161013131108389_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131111390_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131114401_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131117431_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131120418_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131123461_TIMING.jpg
10.4.100.135_01_20161013131126511_TIMING.jpg

It needs to remove the _ in timestamp and add the _TIMING.

Best Answer

Install renameutils and use qmv with your favorite text editor.

qmv loads all names in your editor and when you save and close it applies your changes to the actual files. If the changes are inconsistent (e.g. two files get the same name) it will abort without touching anything. It also handles circular renames correctly.

I usually do:

$ qmv -f do

so that it shows just one column of names (do: destination-only). Here's how it looks:

qmw

If you combine it with the multiple cursors of SublimeText, Atom or Visual Studio Code, it makes a very nice and powerful tool for bulk renaming. For instance, for Atom, you would do EDITOR="atom -w" qmv -f do.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to rename files with count

As an alternative to the various Perl-based methods in other answers, you can do this particular example, and lots of other similar ones with plain bash:

for i in randomized_quad???.png; do   
  mv $i randomized_quad0${i#randomized_quad}
done

This loops over the filenames with only three characters in the number region, and the variable expression in braces takes each filename, snips "randomized_quad" off the front (with the # operator), and adds "randomized_quad0" on the front.

Other excitingly useful operators like this include:

% - cut something off the end
/ - search and replace (/ for the first match, // for all matches)
: - for extracting substrings

A more complete list with examples is here. Also, note that these use POSIX-style regular expressions, so . will match any character, not just a "." If you want to match a ".", you should 'escape' it, with a backslash:

TestVariable1="filename.png"
TestVariable2="filename0png"

echo "${TestVariable1%.png}"
> filename

echo "${TestVariable2%.png}"
> filename

echo "${TestVariable1%\.png}"
> filename

echo "${TestVariable2%\.png}"
> filename0png

Ubuntu – I cannot rename files in bulk using ubuntu’s rename feature

You can use the rename command, which is usually included in a default installation:

rename 's/.*/sprintf("filename (%d)", ++$ENV{c})/e' *

This would do precisely what you asked for. Use the -n flag if you want to do a test first:

rename -n 's/.*/sprintf("filename (%d)", ++$ENV{c})/e' *

This assumes that the environment variable c is undefined, which will cause the count to start from 0. If you want to be extra safe, you could call it like this:

c=0 rename -n 's/.*/sprintf("filename (%d)", ++$ENV{c})/e' *

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to rename files with count

Ubuntu – I cannot rename files in bulk using ubuntu’s rename feature

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