Examples

Some real-world examples.

Please note:

• All examples include the dry-run -d flag to avoid any accidents caused by copy-pasting the commands.
• The examples are tailored for Windows users, therefore use double-quotes. Mac/Linux users must use single quotes for the examples to function correctly.

Contents

• The basics
• Regular expression examples
• {{index}} token examples
• --force mode

The basics

Some examples using plain text --find and --replace strings.

Simple replace

The * wildcard in this command means "all files and directories in the current working directory".

$ renamer -d --find "[bad]" --replace "[good]" *

Before	After
. ├── A poem [bad].txt ├── A story [bad].txt	. ├── A poem [good].txt ├── A story [good].txt

Rename files and folders, recursively

The ** wildcard in this command matches all files and directories recursively from the current working directory downward.

$ renamer -d --find "pic" --replace "photo" "**"

Before	After
. ├── pic1.jpg ├── pic2.jpg └── pics ├── pic3.jpg └── pic4.jpg	. ├── photo1.jpg ├── photo2.jpg └── photos ├── photo3.jpg └── photo4.jpg

Operate only on directories

If the ** pattern is followed by a /, only directories and subdirectories match.

$ renamer -d --find pic --replace photo "**/"

Before	After
. ├── pic1.jpg ├── pic2.jpg └── pics ├── pic3.jpg └── pic4.jpg	. ├── pic1.jpg ├── pic2.jpg └── photos ├── pic3.jpg └── pic4.jpg

Strip out unwanted text

If omitted, --replace defaults to an empty string.

$ renamer -d --find "Season 1 - " *

Before	After
. ├── Season 1 - A boring episode.mp4 ├── Season 1 - Not boring episode.mp4	. ├── A boring episode.mp4 ├── Not boring episode.mp4

Replace a specific path element

This diagram below highlights the different elements of a path. You can operate on a specific element using the --path-element option - valid values are base (the default), name and ext.

┌─────────────────────┬────────────┐
│          dir        │    base    │
├──────┬              ├──────┬─────┤
│ root │              │ name │ ext │
"  /    home/user/dir / file  .txt "
└──────┴──────────────┴──────┴─────┘

This example renames only the file extension.

$ renamer -d --path-element ext --find txt --replace log *

Before	After
. └── A txt file.txt	. └── A txt file.log

Regular Expression examples

The --find option accepts a plain string or Javascript regular expression literal. These examples demonstrate using regular expressions in find expressions.

Prefix files and folders, recursively

$ renamer -d --find "/^/" --replace "good-" "**"

Before	After
. ├── pic1.jpg ├── pic2.jpg └── pics ├── pic3.jpg └── pic4.jpg	. ├── good-pic1.jpg ├── good-pic2.jpg └── good-pics ├── good-pic3.jpg └── good-pic4.jpg

Append suffix to files and folders, recursively

$ renamer -d --find "/$/" --replace=-good --path-element name "**"

Before	After
. ├── pic1.jpg ├── pic2.jpg └── pics ├── pic3.jpg └── pic4.jpg	. ├── pic1-good.jpg ├── pic2-good.jpg └── pics-good ├── pic3-good.jpg └── pic4-good.jpg

Add a conditional suffix

Add a (done) suffix to the name element only in cases where it does not already exist.

$ renamer -d --path-element name --find "/(data\d+)$/" --replace "$1 (done)" *

Before	After
. ├── data1.csv ├── data2 (done).csv ├── data3.xls	. ├── data1 (done).csv ├── data2 (done).csv ├── data3 (done).xls

Case insensitive finds

$ renamer -d --find "/mpeg4/i" --replace "mp4" *

Before	After
. ├── A video.MPEG4 ├── Another video.Mpeg4	. ├── A video.mp4 ├── Another video.mp4

Replace all matches

By default, matches are replaced only once. Use a regular expression with the g flag to replace all matches.

$ renamer -d --find "/e/g" --replace "_" *

Before	After
. ├── A video.mp4 ├── Another video.mp4	. ├── A vid_o.mp4 ├── Anoth_r vid_o.mp4

Strip out whitespace

$ renamer -d --find "/\s/g" *

Before	After
. ├── video A .mp4 ├── video - B.mp4	. ├── videoA.mp4 ├── video-B.mp4

Simplify noisy filenames

$ renamer -d --find "/.*_(\d+)_.*/" --replace "Video $1.mp4" *

Before	After
. ├── [New]_Annoying_filename_-_3_[38881CD1].mp4 ├── [New]_Annoying_filename_-_34_[38881CD1].mp4 ├── [New]_Annoying_filename_-_53_[38881CD1].mp4	. ├── Video 3.mp4 ├── Video 34.mp4 ├── Video 53.mp4

Do something about all those full stops

This example replaces all full-stops within the name path element.

$ renamer -d --path-element name --find "/\./g" --replace " " *

Before	After
. ├── loads.of.full.stops.every.where.jpeg ├── loads.of.full.stops.every.where.mp4	. ├── loads of full stops every where.jpeg ├── loads of full stops every where.mp4

{{index}} token examples

Give your images a new numbering scheme

The special {{index}} token in the --replace string will be replaced with a number, incremented every time a file is renamed. This example also highlights that if omitted, the --find value defaults to the full filename.

$ renamer -d --replace "Image{{index}}.jpg" *

Before	After
. ├── IMG_5776.JPG ├── IMG_5777.JPG ├── IMG_5778.JPG	. ├── Image1.jpg ├── Image2.jpg ├── Image3.jpg

Give your images a new numbering scheme, starting from n.

By default, the {{index}} value begins at 1. You can override this by specifying an --index-root value.

$ renamer -d --replace "Image{{index}}.jpg" --index-root 10 *

Before	After
. ├── IMG_5776.JPG ├── IMG_5777.JPG ├── IMG_5778.JPG	. ├── Image10.jpg ├── Image11.jpg ├── Image12.jpg

Use a custom index format

You can specify the format of the {{index}}} value by passing a printf format string to --index-format.

$ renamer -d --replace "Image{{index}}.jpg" --index-format %03d *

Before	After
. ├── IMG_5776.JPG ├── IMG_5777.JPG ├── IMG_5778.JPG	. ├── Image001.jpg ├── Image002.jpg ├── Image003.jpg

Force mode

Changing file name case on a case-insensitive OS

On a case-insensitive system (e.g. macOS or Windows), this command (renaming file.jpg to File.jpg) will fail as the target file already exists.

$ renamer -d --find file --replace File file.jpg

You can override this behaviour by setting the --force flag.

$ renamer -d --find file --replace File file.jpg --force

Before	After
. ├── file.jpg	. ├── File.jpg