Rename multiple files based on pattern in Unix

Question

There are multiple files in a directory that begin with prefix fgh, for example:

fghfilea
fghfileb
fghfilec

I want to rename a

Answer 1

Another possible parameter expansion:

for f in fgh*; do mv -- "$f" "jkl${f:3}"; done

Answer 2

A generic script to run a sed expression on a list of files (combines the sed solution with the rename solution):

#!/bin/sh

e=$1
shift

for f in $*; do
    fNew=$(echo "$f" | sed "$e")
    mv "$f" "$fNew";
done

Invoke by passing the script a sed expression, and then any list of files, just like a version of rename:

script.sh 's/^fgh/jkl/' fgh*

Answer 3

rename might not be in every system. so if you don't have it, use the shell this example in bash shell

for f in fgh*; do mv "$f" "${f/fgh/xxx}";done

Answer 4

To install the Perl rename script:

sudo cpan install File::Rename

There are two renames as mentioned in the comments in Stephan202's answer. Debian based distros have the Perl rename. Redhat/rpm distros have the C rename.
OS X doesn't have one installed by default (at least in 10.8), neither does Windows/Cygwin.

Answer 5

Using StringSolver tools (windows & Linux bash) which process by examples:

filter fghfilea ok fghreport ok notfghfile notok; mv --all --filter fghfilea jklfilea

It first computes a filter based on examples, where the input is the file names and the output (ok and notok, arbitrary strings). If filter had the option --auto or was invoked alone after this command, it would create a folder ok and a folder notok and push files respectively to them.

Then using the filter, the mv command is a semi-automatic move which becomes automatic with the modifier --auto. Using the previous filter thanks to --filter, it finds a mapping from fghfilea to jklfilea and then applies it on all filtered files.

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Other one-line solutions

Other equivalent ways of doing the same (each line is equivalent), so you can choose your favorite way of doing it.

filter fghfilea ok fghreport ok notfghfile notok; mv --filter fghfilea jklfilea; mv
filter fghfilea ok fghreport ok notfghfile notok; auto --all --filter fghfilea "mv fghfilea jklfilea"
# Even better, automatically infers the file name
filter fghfilea ok fghreport ok notfghfile notok; auto --all --filter "mv fghfilea jklfilea"

Multi-step solution

To carefully find if the commands are performing well, you can type the following:

filter fghfilea ok
filter fghfileb ok
filter fghfileb notok

and when you are confident that the filter is good, perform the first move:

mv fghfilea jklfilea

If you want to test, and use the previous filter, type:

mv --test --filter

If the transformation is not what you wanted (e.g. even with mv --explain you see that something is wrong), you can type mv --clear to restart moving files, or add more examples mv input1 input2 where input1 and input2 are other examples

When you are confident, just type

mv --filter

and voilà! All the renaming is done using the filter.

DISCLAIMER: I am a co-author of this work made for academic purposes. There might also be a bash-producing feature soon.

Answer 6

Here's a way to do it using command-line Groovy:

groovy -e 'new File(".").eachFileMatch(~/fgh.*/) {it.renameTo(it.name.replaceFirst("fgh", "jkl"))}'