Ubuntu – Renaming multiple files with complex numbered names

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' *

I just removed everything up to the last backslash with rename

$ rename -n 's/.*\\//' G*
rename(G:some\really\long\file\path\then\the\file_name.mov, file_name.mov)
rename(G:some\really\long\file\path\then\the\filename.txt, filename.txt)
rename(G:some\really\long\file\path\then\the\name1.jpg, name1.jpg)
rename(G:some\really\long\file\path\then\the\name2.png, name2.png)

Remove -n after testing to actually rename the files.

Notes

• -n don't do anything, just print what will be changed
• s/old/new replace old with new
• .* any number of any characters
• \\ The first backslash is to escape the second one.
• Since regex are greedy this expression .*\\ eats all the preceding backslashes too.
• Since the last two delimiters // are empty everything matched in the search part is deleted