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

rename foo bar directory/filename

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...

Sample Output

$ ls -aF
... many filenames ...
.xsession-errors.old
$ rename old vetust ./.*.*
$ ls -aF
... many filenames ...
.xsession-errors.vetust

-2

By: hexram

2011-05-04 22:29:11

rename

8 Alternatives + Submit Alt

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' _ {} + Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
Come on...
```
10

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

RanyAlbeg · 2011-04-30 14:26:05 14
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

What Others Think

rahimhh21 · 118 weeks and 3 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 109 weeks and 1 day ago

pugpuppies95 · 71 weeks and 2 days ago

yeneba6574 · 25 weeks ago

That is truly decent to listen. much obliged to you for the upgrade and good fortunes. Fitspresso

uzairkhatri123 · 6 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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