NAME

       rename - rename files

SYNOPSIS

       rename [options] expression replacement file...

DESCRIPTION

       rename  will rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of expression in
       their name by replacement.

OPTIONS

       -s, --symlink
              Do not rename a symlink but its target.

       -v, --verbose
              Show which files were renamed, if any.

       -n, --no-act
              Do not make any changes; add --verbose to see what would be made.

       -o, --no-overwrite
              Do not overwrite existing files.   When  --symlink  is  active,  do  not  overwrite
              symlinks pointing to existing targets.

       -i, --interactive
              Ask before overwriting existing files.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

EXAMPLES

       Given the files foo1, ..., foo9, foo10, ..., foo278, the commands

              rename foo foo00 foo?
              rename foo foo0 foo??

       will turn them into foo001, ..., foo009, foo010, ..., foo278.  And

              rename .htm .html *.htm

       will fix the extension of your html files.  Provide an empty string for shortening:

              rename '_with_long_name' '' file_with_long_name.*

       will remove the substring in the filenames.

WARNING

       The  renaming  has  no  safeguards  by  default  or  without  any one of the options --no-
       overwrite, --interactive or --no-act.  If the user has permission to rewrite  file  names,
       the command will perform the action without any questions.  For example, the result can be
       quite drastic when the command is run as root in the /lib directory.  Always make a backup
       before running the command, unless you truly know what you are doing.

INTERACTIVE MODE

       As  most  standard  utilities  rename can be used with a terminal device (tty in short) in
       canonical mode, where the line is buffered by the tty and you press ENTER to validate  the
       user input.  If you put your tty in cbreak mode however, rename requires only a single key
       press to answer the prompt.  To set cbreak mode, run for example:

              sh -c 'stty -icanon min 1; "$0" "$@"; stty icanon' rename -i from to files

EXIT STATUS

              0      all requested rename operations were successful
              1      all rename operations failed
              2      some rename operations failed
              4      nothing was renamed
              64     unanticipated error occurred

SEE ALSO

       mv(1)

AVAILABILITY

       The  rename  command  is  part  of  the  util-linux  package   and   is   available   from
       https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.