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user812758
Asked: 2018-03-30 07:33:51 +0800 CST

How do I move numbers in filenames, in a batch renaming operation?

  • 772

I have been trying to figure out how to rename files for the past few hours.

I have 2000 files that are like this:

file.1.pdb
file.2.pdb
file.3.pdb

I would like to rename these files to something like:

file.pdb.1
file.pdb.2
file.pdb.3
command-line batch-rename

6 Answers

  1. If you have rename installed, you can use

    rename -n 's/(\.\d+)\.pdb$/.pdb$1/' *.pdb   # just watch what WOULD happen
rename    's/(\.\d+)\.pdb$/.pdb$1/' *.pdb   # actually rename the files

    The command rename can be installed via

    sudo apt install rename
    • 16

  2. Using Perl rename:

    rename -n 's/(\.\d+)(\.pdb)/$2$1/' *.pdb

    Quick explanation:

    • *.pdb Match all files that end with .pdb. (Done by the shell)
    • (\.\d+) Match a literal dot, then one or more decimal digits. The parens create a match group.
    • $2$1 Reverse the first and second match groups.
    • -n No action (simulate). If the output looks good, run the command again without this flag.
    • 11

  3. Through mmv (rename multiple files by wildcard patterns) it's mush easy:

    mmv '*.*.*' '#1.#3.#2' *.pdb

    or zmv of zsh shell; it's a module that allows to do rename; see ZMV-Examples:

    zmv -w '*.*.*' '$1.$3.$2' *.pdb
    • 11

  4. You can use this script:

    for i in `seq 1 2000`; do
mv file.$i.pdb file.pdb.$i
done

    Or this copy-paste friendly command:

    for i in `seq 1 2000`; do mv file.$i.pdb file.pdb.$i; done

    For use above commands, put all 2000 files in one folder and then open terminal in that directory, then run above command in it.

    • 8

  5. Recently nautilus, the default file manager, received a batch rename dialog. It is not yet powerful enough to do what you want. But luckily there is thunar, an alternative file manager that can be installed. With thunars rename dialog you can do what you want using the GUI.

    First install thunar:

    sudo apt install thunar

    Start thunar, navigate to the directory that has your files. Then select all of them. Press F2.

    In the dialog that opens, again, select all files. Change mode to "Search & Replace" and to "Name & Suffix". Check "Regular Expression". Now use the following as search and replace patterns:

    file\.(.+)\.pdb

    and

    file.pdb.$1

    Finally click the rename button.

    The advantage of this way is that you get a visual preview of what will happen before you actually do the renaming.

    thunar rename dialog

    • 5

  6. You can use rename from util-linux for this (the command is called rename.ul in ubuntu):

    rename.ul .pdb '' *
rename.ul "file." "file.pdb." *

    This first removes the .pdb extension from the end and then re-inserts it into the middle.

    • 3