File renaming Linux - linux

Question

I have tried to rename several files on my Linux system. I usedrename 's/foo/bar/g' * All the files that I wish to change are in the current directory.
It does not change the name of the files but I think it should. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

An easy way would to do:
mv file2rename newname

Answer 2

You have mentioned that you want to rename multiple files at once using rename expression. Technically you can't use only * sign for change file names. * means all files with same name. We know same file types doesn't exist with same name but you can rename some selected part from file. For an example
admin#home:~/works$ ls test*.c
test_car.c test_van.c test_dog.c
you can rename some part of these files not full name. because there cannot be exist same file name with same extention
admin#home:~/works$ rename 's/test/practice/' *.c
After executing this command every test replace with practice.
admin#home:~/works$ ls practice*.c
practice_car.c practice_van.c practice_dog.c

Answer 3

Rename a file mv
mv old_name new_name
The use of the mv command changes the name of the file from old_name to new_name.

Answer 4

Another way to rename file extentions in the current directory, for instance renaming all .txt files in .csv:
for file in $(ls .); do
mv $file ${file/.txt/.csv}
done
This will not affect files that don't have the .txt extention and it will prompt an error (should be developed further depending on your needs).

Answer 5

some posts points out the usage of for x in $(something); do..
please - Don't (ever, under any circumstances) use that! (see below)
Say you have a file(and, other .txt files):
"my file with a very long file - name-.txt"
and you do
for f in $(ls *.txt); do echo $f; done
(or something like that) it will output
.
..
a.sh
docs
my
file
with
a
very
long
file
-
name-.txt
(or something similar)
Instead, try the following:
#! /bin/sh
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
echo -n "example usage: bash $0 .txt .csv <DIR>"
echo -n "(renames all files(ending with .txt to .csv) in DIR"
exit
fi
A="$1" # OLD PREFIX (e.g .txt )
B="$2" # NEW PREFIX (e.g .csv )
DIR="$3*$A" # DIR (e.g ./ )
# for file f;
# in path $DIR;
for f in $DIR; do
## do the following:
# || here just means:
# only continue IFF(if and only if)
# the previous is-file-check's exit-status returns non-zero
[ -e "$f" ] || continue
# move file "$f" and rename it's ending $A with $B (e.g ".txt" to ".csv")
# (still, in $DIR)
mv "$f" "${f/$A/$B}"
done
### $ tree docs/
# docs/
# ├── a.txt
# ├── b.txt
# ├── c.txt
# └── d.txt
#
# 0 directories, 4 files
#
### $ bash try3.sh .txt .csv docs/
# $ tree docs/
# docs/
# ├── a.csv
# ├── b.csv
# ├── c.csv
# └── d.csv
#
# 0 directories, 4 files
##
#-------------------#
References:
Bash Pitfalls
DontReadLinesWithFor
Quotes
Bash FAQ
MAN's: ($ man "- the following")
- bash
- mv
- ls
Note: I do not mean to be offensive - so please don't take it as offense (I got the main command-idea from meniluca actually!
But since it was (for x in $(ls ..)) I decided to create a whole script, rather than just edit.