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Bulk changing of file names using Terminal in OS X

 
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# 1  
Old 12-30-2015
Bulk changing of file names using Terminal in OS X
I want to change the name of several files within a folders (directory) and subdirectories in OS X. If I only wanted to change file names within the directory I guess I would use:

rm photo*.jpg picture*.jpg

I have lots of subdirectories, is there a way of getting the file changes for all subdirectories without having to do each folder in turn?
# 2  
Old 12-30-2015
Can you give an example? That is... is there a pattern to the renaming?

For example find all photo0001.jpg and change them to vacation2015_0001.jpg for each numeric named photo anywhere in the folder and sub folders.
# 3  
Old 12-30-2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by ademanuele
I want to change the name of several files within a folders (directory) and subdirectories in OS X. If I only wanted to change file names within the directory I guess I would use:

rm photo*.jpg picture*.jpg

I have lots of subdirectories, is there a way of getting the file changes for all subdirectories without having to do each folder in turn?
Please, do not do that. rm means remove not rename


Here's an example to start with using find and Perl.

Code:
find . -name "photo*.jpg" -type f | perl -nle '$new=$_; $new=~s/photo/picture/; rename $_, $new unless $_ eq $new'

That would rename any file photo*.jpg to picture*.jpg in the current and subdirectories, as long as no directory has photo as part of its name.
Last edited by Aia; 12-30-2015 at 01:56 PM.. Reason: Add warning about directory name
This User Gave Thanks to Aia For This Post:
ademanuele
# 4  
Old 12-30-2015
Yes, your example is what I am trying to achieve, e.g. changing photo001.jpg, photo002.jpg, photo003.jpg etc and change the name to picture001.jpg, picture002.jpg, picture003.jpg (this is just an example)
# 5  
Old 12-30-2015
Try also
Code:
find . -name "photo*.jpg" | while read FN; do echo mv "$FN" "${FN/photo/picture}"; done

Remove the echo when happy with the result.

Double quotes (thanks, Aia!) in the mv command prevent problems when file names contain e.g. spaces.
Last edited by RudiC; 12-30-2015 at 02:53 PM..
# 6  
Old 12-30-2015
Thanks Aia, did the trick!
 
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