Bulk rename files on media device matched with regex on Windows

Question

I feel like I could do this fairly easily on a linux machine with bash, but I don\'t have enough experience with Batch to do it.

Basically, a lot of the music files

Answer 1

I've been meaning to do this for a while anyway.

There's a handy Perl rename script written years ago by Larry Wall that I often use to rename files via regexp. But since I rarely have need for Perl in Windows, and installing Perl just for this one script seems like a waste, I always thought it'd be a good idea to rewrite prename using native Windows scripting languages.

Hopefully if there are any bugs, they won't be too debilitating. I didn't test the script a whole lot, but it seems to work fine for basic usage where the files you're renaming live in your current working directory. Bonus: backreferences work in your replacement text. Wooo.

Example usage

prename.bat -v "s/searchRXP/replacement/flags" filemask

See prename.bat -h in a console window for full usage help.

prename.bat

<!-- : prename.bat -- http://stackoverflow.com/a/38191137/1683264
@echo off & setlocal

rem // ensure flags and other vars begin undefined
for %%I in (v n f h show filemask search replace flags) do set %%I=

rem // organize arguments
for /f "delims=" %%I in ('cscript //nologo //job:args "%~f0?.wsf" %*') do set "%%~I"
if defined h goto usage
if defined invalid (
    echo Unrecognized option: %invalid%
    goto usage
)
if not defined filemask goto usage
if not defined search goto usage
if defined v set "show=1"
if defined n set "show=1"

rem // expand wildcards
for %%I in (%filemask%) do (
    for /f "delims=" %%# in ('cscript //nologo //job:newname "%~f0?.wsf" "%%~I"') do (
        if defined show echo %%~I -^> %%~#
        if not defined n if not "%%~fI"=="%%~f#" (
            >NUL (
                if defined f (move /y "%%~I" "%%~#") else ren "%%~I" "%%~nx#"
            )
        )
    )
)

goto :EOF

:usage
echo Usage: %~nx0 [-v] [-n] [-f] perlexpr [filelist]
echo    -v shows verbose output
echo    -n performs a simulation only
echo    -f forces overwriting existing files
echo    perlexpr is a Perl-compatible regular expression
echo    filelist can contain wildcards
echo;
echo Example:
echo    %~nx0 -n "s/([^\.]+)$/\1.cmd/i" *.bat
echo This would simulate renaming every .bat file extension to .bat.cmd
goto :EOF

: end batch begin JScript hybrid code -->
<package>
    <job id="args">
        <script language="JScript">
            var args = {
                    v: 0,
                    n: 0,
                    f: 0,
                    h: 0,
                    search: '',
                    replace: '',
                    flags: '',
                    filemask: ''
                };

            for (var i=0; i<WSH.Arguments.length; i++) {
                if (/^[\/-](.)/.test(WSH.Arguments(i))) {
                    if (typeof args[RegExp.$1] === 'undefined')
                        args.invalid = WSH.Arguments(i);
                    args[RegExp.$1] = 1;
                }
                else if (/^s(\W)(.+)\1(.*)\1(.*)/.test(WSH.Arguments(i))) {
                    args.search = RegExp.$2;
                    args.replace = RegExp.$3;
                    args.flags = RegExp.$4;
                }
                else args.filemask += ';' + '"' + WSH.Arguments(i) + '"';
            }
            for (var i in args) if (args[i]) WSH.Echo(i + '=' + args[i]);
        </script>
    </job>
    <job id="newname">
        <script language="JScript">
            var env = WSH.CreateObject('WScript.Shell').Environment('Process'),
                search = env('search'),
                repl = env('replace'),
                flags = env('flags');

            WSH.Echo(WSH.Arguments(0).replace(
                new RegExp(search, flags),
                function(full, $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9) {
                    var backref = [full, $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9];
                    return repl.replace(
                        /[\\$](\d)/g,
                        function(full, $1) { return backref[$1]; }
                    );
                }
            ));
        </script>
    </job>
</package>