This article describes a few methods of bulk renaming of files using Regular Expressions. The first two run in batch mode from the Windows console, the third is an interactive application.
Method 1: scripting sed using a bat file
@echo off ============ ========================= ===================== =================== ======= rem Copyright: Owen Duffy, 2015. All rights reserved. rem A batch file for RE based file rename. rem Uses sed, see http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/sed.htm . rem test for command extensions if "~x0"=="%~x0" goto EXTERROR if "%%~x0"=="%~x0" goto EXTERROR if not CmdExtVersion 2 goto EXTERROR rem start set SED=sed rem deal with options if not #%1==#-n goto getsedexpr set noaction=y shift echo Trial run only, rename disabled. rem get the sedexpr string :getsedexpr set sedexpr=%1 shift if #%sedexpr%==# goto usage for %%f in (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do call :dosed "%%f" goto cleanup :dosed rem extract old filename+ext for %%f in (%1) do set oldname="%%~nf%%~xf" rem extract rename arguments for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%n in (`echo %oldname% ^| %SED% -r -e %sedexpr%`) do call :doren %1 %%n %oldname% exit /b :doren if %2==%3 exit /b echo rename %1 %2 if not #%noaction%==#y rename %1 %2 exit /b :ERREXIST echo cannot rename %1 as %2% as %2 exists. exit /b :usage echo Usage: srename [-n] sedexpr [filenames] echo. echo sedexpr is a sed s/// command using extended RE. echo Example: srename s/\"(.*)\.(.*)\"/"\2.\1"/ *.* echo. goto cleanup :cleanup set sedexpr= set SED= set noaction= goto eof :EXTERROR echo:This script requires command extensions v2 or later!>&2 verify error 2>NUL goto eof :eof
A Windows port of sed can be downloaded from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/sed.htm .
Method 2: scripting PERL using a bat file
The rename.pl script derived from Larry’s Wall’s original is now installed in the Debian distribution. If you have PERL installed on Windows, then you need a bat file wrapper to perform the file globbing that is done by the shell on unix but not done by the Windows console command processor.
PRENAME.BAT:
@echo off rem Copyright: Owen Duffy, 2015. All rights reserved. rem A Windows front end for the PERL rename script rem test for command extensions if "~x0"=="%~x0" goto EXTERROR if "%%~x0"=="%~x0" goto EXTERROR if not CmdExtVersion 2 goto EXTERROR rem start set PRENAME=\bin\rename.pl rem generate a unique workfile name :tryworkfileagain set /a workfile=%RANDOM%+100000 set workfile=%TEMP%\prename-%workfile:~-4%.tmp if exist %workfile% goto tryworkfileagain rem parse the options set options= :nextoption set arg=%1 if #%1==# goto usage set arg=#%arg:~0,1% if not %arg% == #- goto getperlexpr set options=%options% %1 shift goto nextoption rem get the perlexpr string :getperlexpr rem shift set perlexpr=%1 shift if #%perlexpr%==# goto usage for %%f in (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do echo %%f >>%workfile% perl %PRENAME% %options% %perlexpr% <%workfile% goto cleanup :usage echo Usage: prename [-v] [-n] [-f] perlexpr [filenames] goto cleanup :cleanup if exist %workfile% del /q %workfile% set options= set perlexpr= set workfile= set PRENAME= goto eof :EXTERROR echo:This script requires command extensions v2 or later!>&2 verify error 2>NUL goto eof :eof
rename.pl:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w # # This script was developed by Robin Barker (Robin.Barker@npl.co.uk), # from Larry Wall's original script eg/rename from the perl source. # # This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it # under the same terms as Perl itself. # # Larry(?)'s RCS header: # RCSfile: rename,v Revision: 4.1 Date: 92/08/07 17:20:30 # # $RCSfile: rename,v $$Revision: 1.5 $$Date: 1998/12/18 16:16:31 $ # # $Log: rename,v $ # Revision 1.5 1998/12/18 16:16:31 rmb1 # moved to perl/source # changed man documentation to POD # # Revision 1.4 1997/02/27 17:19:26 rmb1 # corrected usage string # # Revision 1.3 1997/02/27 16:39:07 rmb1 # added -v # # Revision 1.2 1997/02/27 16:15:40 rmb1 # *** empty log message *** # # Revision 1.1 1997/02/27 15:48:51 rmb1 # Initial revision # #use strict; use Getopt::Long; Getopt::Long::Configure('bundling'); my ($verbose, $no_act, $force, $op); die "Usage: rename [-v] [-n] [-f] perlexpr [filenames]\n" unless GetOptions( 'v|verbose' => \$verbose, 'n|no-act' => \$no_act, 'f|force' => \$force, ) and $op = shift; $verbose++ if $no_act; if (!@ARGV) { print "reading filenames from STDIN\n" if $verbose; @ARGV = ; chop(@ARGV); } for (@ARGV) { my $was = $_; eval $op; die $@ if $@; next if $was eq $_; # ignore quietly if (-e $_ and !$force) { warn "$was not renamed: $_ already exists\n"; } elsif ($no_act or rename $was, $_) { print "$was renamed as $_\n" if $verbose; } else { warn "Can't rename $was $_: $!\n"; } } __END__ =head1 NAME rename - renames multiple files =head1 SYNOPSIS B S<[ B<-v> ]> S<[ B<-n> ]> S<[ B<-f> ]> I S<[ I ]> =head1 DESCRIPTION C renames the filenames supplied according to the rule specified as the first argument. The I argument is a Perl expression which is expected to modify the C<$_> string in Perl for at least some of the filenames specified. If a given filename is not modified by the expression, it will not be renamed. If no filenames are given on the command line, filenames will be read via standard input. For example, to rename all files matching C<*.bak> to strip the extension, you might say rename 's/\.bak$//' *.bak To translate uppercase names to lower, you'd use rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' * =head1 OPTIONS =over 8 =item B<-v>, B<--verbose> Verbose: print names of files successfully renamed. =item B<-n>, B<--no-act> No Action: show what files would have been renamed. =item B<-f>, B<--force> Force: overwrite existing files. =back =head1 ENVIRONMENT No environment variables are used. =head1 AUTHOR Larry Wall =head1 SEE ALSO mv(1), perl(1) =head1 DIAGNOSTICS If you give an invalid Perl expression you'll get a syntax error. =head1 BUGS The original C did not check for the existence of target filenames, so had to be used with care. I hope I've fixed that (Robin Barker). =cut
Method 3: RegexRenamer
RegexRenamer is a dedicated GUI app that allows the user to interactively construct the regular expressions whilst viewing the effect on the file list window.
Above is an example screenshot.