Home / ubuntu / Questions / 809013
In Process
Adam
Asked: 2016-08-07 11:58:35 +0800 CST

Rename all files in a folder to consecutive numbers

  • 772

I would like to rename all files in a folder so to have consecutive numbers. For instance:

1.png
2.png
3.png
etc

I know there is the rename command and I know there are DOZENS of similar questions in here but I can't find the way.

NOTE: Suggested duplicate doesn't contain a solution specific for my case. Please stop flagging this as duplicate, because suggested duplicate does not answer my question

command-line

2 Answers

  1. Assuming you want to follow the shell globbing order while sorting files, you can do:

    #!/bin/bash
counter=0
for file in *; do 
    [[ -f $file ]] && echo mv -i "$file" $((counter+1)).png && ((counter++))
done

    Here looping over all the files in the current directory and renaming sequentially based on order, if you want to deal with only the .png files, use for file in *.png instead. counter variable will keep track of the increments.

    This is a dry-run, remove echo to let the actual renaming action take place.

    Example:

    $ counter=0; for file in *; do [[ -f $file ]] && echo mv -i "$file" $((counter+1)).png && ((counter++)); done
mv -i file.txt 1.png
mv -i foo.sh 2.png
mv -i bar.txt 3.png
    • 9

  2. Here's a small python script that can do what you ask

    Basic usage:

    python rename_files.py Pictures/

    It will print output to stdout before renaming each file

    This version pushes index until it is found that filename with such index is not taken. Although filenames may start at different index upon successive iterations of the script, the files themselves remain unchanged.

    import os
import sys

top_dir = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[1])
files = os.listdir( top_dir )

for index,item in enumerate(files):
    if os.path.isdir( os.path.join(top_dir,item) ):
       files.pop(index)

files.sort()

duplicates = []
last_index = None
for index,item in enumerate(files):

    last_index = index
    extension = ""
    if '.' in item:
        extension = '.' + item.split('.')[-1]
    old_file = os.path.join(top_dir,item)
    new_file = os.path.join(top_dir,str(index) + extension  )
    while os.path.isfile(new_file):
          last_index += 1
          new_file = os.path.join(top_dir,str(last_index) + extension  )
    print( old_file + ' renamed to ' + new_file ) 
    os.rename(old_file,new_file)

    Alternative version, solves issue with duplicate filenames by appending timestamp to each filename, and then enumerating them. This solution may take longer time, as number of files increases, but for directories that range in hundreds , this won't take long time

    import os
import sys
import time

top_dir = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[1])
files = os.listdir( top_dir )

for index,item in enumerate(files):
    if os.path.isdir( os.path.join(top_dir,item) ):
       files.pop(index)

files.sort()
timestamp = str(int(time.time()))
for item in files:
    os.rename( os.path.join(top_dir,item) ,
               os.path.join(top_dir, timestamp + item) )

files2 = os.listdir( top_dir )

for index,item in enumerate(files2):
    if os.path.isdir( os.path.join(top_dir,item) ):
       files2.pop(index)

for index,item in enumerate( files2  ):

    last_index = index
    extension = ""
    if '.' in item:
        extension = '.' + item.split('.')[-1]
    old_file = os.path.join(top_dir,item)
    new_file = os.path.join(top_dir,str(index) + extension  )

    while os.path.isfile(new_file):
          last_index += 1
          new_file = os.path.join(top_dir,str(last_index) + extension  )
    print( old_file + ' renamed to ' + new_file ) 
    os.rename(old_file,new_file)
    • 3