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Rename all files which contain the sub-string 'foo', replacing it with 'bar'

Terminal - Rename all files which contain the sub-string 'foo', replacing it with 'bar'
for i in ./*foo*;do mv -- "$i" "${i//foo/bar}";done
2011-04-30 14:26:05
User: RanyAlbeg
Functions: mv
6
Up
Down
Rename all files which contain the sub-string 'foo', replacing it with 'bar'

That is an alternative to command 8368.

Command 8368 is EXTREMELY NOT clever.

1) Will break also for files with spaces AND new lines in them AND for an empty expansion of the glob '*'

2) For making such a simple task it uses two pipes, thus forking.

3) xargs(1) is dangerous (broken) when processing filenames that are not NUL-terminated.

4) ls shows you a representation of files. They are NOT file names (for simple names, they mostly happen to be equivalent). Do NOT try to parse it.

Why? see this :http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs

Recursive version:

find . -depth -name "*foo*" -exec bash -c 'for f; do base=${f##*/}; mv -- "$f" "${f%/*}/${base//foo/bar}"; done' _ {} +
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Alternatives

There are 2 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
ls * | sed -e 'p;s/foo/bar/' | xargs -n2 mv
2011-04-30 00:21:10
User: windfold
Functions: ls sed xargs
3
Up
Down
bulk rename files with sed, one-liner

Renames all files in a directory named foo to bar.

foobar1 gets renamed to barbar1

barfoo2 gets renamed to barbar2

fooobarfoo gets renamed to barobarfoo

NOTE: Will break for files with spaces AND new lines AND for an empty expansion of the glob '*'

Comments (6) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
rename 's/foo/bar/g' ./*
2011-05-01 15:55:20
User: roland_tarver
Functions: rename
3
Up
Down
Rename all files which contain the sub-string 'foo', replacing it with 'bar'

Would this command line achieve the desired function? My CLI knowledge is not great so this could certainly be wrong. It is merely a suggestion for more experienced uses to critique. Best wishes roly :-)

Show sample output | Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
for f in *; do mv "$f" "${f/foo/bar}"; done
2011-04-30 09:53:20
User: uwe
Functions: mv
-1
Up
Down
bulk rename files with sed, one-liner

without sed, but has no problems with files with spaces or other critical characters

Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
ls | sed 'p;s/foo/bar/' | xargs -n2 mv
2011-04-30 10:56:35
User: pkufranky
Functions: ls sed xargs
-1
Up
Down
bulk rename files with sed, one-liner
Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
rename foo bar directory/filename
2011-05-04 22:29:11
User: hexram
Functions: rename
-1
Up
Down
Rename all files which contain the sub-string 'foo', replacing it with 'bar'

rename command in my system -Fuduntu running 2.6.38 Linux Kernel- is an ELF 64-bit LSB executable, not a Perl script. man page for rename command shows syntax as "rename from to where" (or something like that), so I am doing just what I have been told...

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Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

Just because a command has problems doesn't mean it's not clever.

Comment by eightmillion 107 weeks and 5 days ago

I can see what you mean, but I disagree.

Your clever is, by my terms, useless complexity.

In fact, a properly constructed command is less complex.

ls,sed and xargs does not indicate about anything but a waste of resources which is also dangerous.

Comment by RanyAlbeg 107 weeks and 4 days ago

Hey If you're going to hate why don't you put the hate where it belongs: In the comments of my command instead of marring the beauty of your command?

Comment by windfold 106 weeks and 5 days ago

Acutally, I take it back this command is better:

http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/8370/bulk-rename-files-with-sed-one-liner

Comment by windfold 106 weeks and 5 days ago
rename

you want the version by Larry Wall, comes installed with Ubuntu.

Comment by unixmonkey365 88 weeks ago

Your point of view

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