rename: Ultimate Guide to Batch File Renaming in Linux

Unlock the power of batch file renaming in Linux with the rename utility. Explore a comprehensive collection of commands for renaming files and directories. Learn how to remove parentheses, replace spaces with underscores, convert case, change extensions, add prefixes, and much more.

Remove all Parentheses from file/folder names

rename '(' '' *
rename ')' '' *

Rename all spaces to underscore

for file in *' '*; do 
    mv -- "$file" "${file// /_}";  
done

Rename all files with spaces to underscore

for file in *; do 
    mv -- "$file" "${file// /_}"; 
done

Rename uppercase to lowercase

for i in *; do 
    mv $i `echo $i | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'`; 
done

for i in $( ls | grep [A-Z] ); do 
    mv -i $i `echo $i | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'`; 
done

Rename all uppercase to lowercase

rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' *

Remove .sh file extension for files in the current directory

rename 's/\.sh//' ./*

Remove all spaces from all files in the current folder

rename 's/ //g' *

Rename multiple files from .php to .html

rename s/ .php/ .html/ *.html

Replace spaces in filenames with underscores

rename 's/ /_/g' *

Batch rename extension of all files in a folder, in the example from .txt to .md

rename *.JPG *.jpg

Renames all files in the current directory to contain no space characters

rename 's/ /_/g' *

Batch file suffix renaming

rename -n "s/-.*//" *

Rename all files containing 'foo' with 'bar'

rename foo bar directory/filename

rename foo bar filename

Batch rename extension of all files in a folder, from .txt to .md

rename .txt .md *.txt

Rename all files containing 'foo' with 'bar'

rename 's/foo/bar/g' ./*

Batch rename extension of all files in a folder, from .txt to .md

rename 's/.txt/.md/i' *

Convert single digits to double digits

rename 's/\d+/sprintf("%02d",$&)/e' $@

Replace spaces in filenames

rename "s/ *//g" *.jpg

Rename multiple files in one go

rename 's/.xls/.ods/g' *.xls

Convert filenames in the current directory to lowercase

rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' *

Title Case Files

rename 's/\b((?!(a|of|that|to)\b)[a-z]+)/\u$1/g' *

Convert uppercase files to lowercase

rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' *

Change the extension of a filename

rename .JPG .jpg *.JPG

Replace strings in filenames

rename 's/foo/bar/g' foobar

Clean up poorly named TV shows

rename -v 's/.*[s,S](\d{2}).*[e,E](\d{2}).*\.avi/SHOWNAME\ S$1E$2.avi/' poorly.named.file.s01e01.avi

Yet Another Rename (bash function)

rename(){
    txtToReplace=${1} ;
    replacementTxt=${2} ;
    shift 2 ;
    files=${@} ;
    for file in $files ; do
        mv ${file} ${file/${txtToReplace}/${replacementTxt}} ;
    done
}

Convert spaces in filenames to underscores

rename 'y/ /_/' *

Rename all .jpeg and .JPG files to have .jpg extension

rename 's/\.jpe?g$/.jpg/i' *

Replace spaces in a filename with hyphens

rename 's/ /-/g' *

Replace spaces in filenames with underscores

rename 'y/ /_/' *

Copy/move a bunch of files to dot files and back

rename s/^/./ *

Rename all .jpeg and .JPG files to .jpg

rename 's/\.jpeg/\.jpg/' *.jpeg; rename 's/\.JPG/\.jpg/' *.JPG

Rename files in batch

rename 's/^hospital\.php\?loc=(\d{4})$/hospital_$1/' hospital.php*

Batch rename extension of all files in a folder, from .txt to .md

rename 's/\.txt$/\.md$/i' *

Title Case Files

rename 's/(^|[\s\(\)\[\]_-])([a-z])/$1\u$2/g' *

rename 's/\b([a-z])/\u$1/g' *

Add prefix onto filenames

rename 's/^/prefix/' *

Tracklist replace backspace with '-'

rename 's/ /-/g' *.mp3

Change file extension

rename .oldextension .newextension *.oldextension

Numeric zero padding file rename

rename 's/\d+/sprintf("%04d",$&)/e' *.jpg

Adding Prefix to File name

rename 's/^/PREFIX/g' *

Adding Prefix to File name

rename 's/^/CS749__/' *.pdf

Renames multiple files that match the pattern

rename 's/foo/bar/g' *

Space to underscore across a single directory

rename ' ' '_' *

Replace all the spaces in all the filenames in the current directory and including directories with underscores

rename "s/ /_/g" * .*

Adding leading zeros to a filename (1.jpg -> 001.jpg)

rename.ul "" 00 ?.jpg; rename "" 0 ??.jpg;

Replace Space In Filenames With Underscore

rename 's/ /_/g' *

Rename with a regular expression and leading zeros

rename 's/result_([0-9]+)_([0-9]+)_([0-9]+)\.json\.txt/sprintf("%d%02d%02d.txt",$3,$2,$1)/ge' result_*.txt