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

for i in ./*foo*;do mv -- "$i" "${i//foo/bar}";done

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' _ {} +

Sample Output

Come on...

By: RanyAlbeg

2011-04-30 14:26:05

8 Alternatives + Submit Alt

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
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ ls
thisFileIsCalledDAVE

$ rename 's/DAVE/PETE/g' ./*

$ ls
thisFileIsCalledPETE
```
7

rename 's/foo/bar/g' ./*

roland_tarver · 2011-05-01 15:55:20 6
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 '*'
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

ls * | sed -e 'p;s/foo/bar/' | xargs -n2 mv

windfold · 2011-04-30 00:21:10 12
bulk rename files with sed, one-liner

Far from my favorite, but works in sh and with an old sed that doesn't support '-E'
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

for i in *; do mv $i $(echo $i | sed 's/foo/bar/'); done

frankenfatz · 2017-09-14 00:57:25 22
bulk rename files with GNU Parallel

Works with any file name: space, ', " and even \n is OK. The code in {= =} is a perl expression.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

parallel -0 mv {} {=s/foo/bar/g=} ::: *

unixmonkey91589 · 2015-12-25 17:22:43 12
bulk rename files with sed, one-liner
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

ls | sed 'p;s/foo/bar/' | xargs -n2 mv

pkufranky · 2011-04-30 10:56:35 4

What Others Think

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

eightmillion · 719 weeks and 2 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.

RanyAlbeg · 719 weeks and 2 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?

windfold · 718 weeks and 3 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

windfold · 718 weeks and 3 days ago

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

unixmonkey365 · 699 weeks and 4 days ago

seofox · 170 weeks and 6 days ago

seofox · 158 weeks and 2 days ago

seofox · 157 weeks ago

rahimhh21 · 128 weeks and 3 days ago

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missmawar222 · 47 weeks and 4 days ago

yeneba6574 · 35 weeks ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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