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 change where it points.

       -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.

       -a, --all
           Replace all occurrences of expression rather than only the first one.

       -l, --last
           Replace the last occurrence of expression rather than the first one.

       -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.

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

       -V, --version
           Print version and exit.

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.

EDGE CASES

       If the expression is empty, then by default replacement will be added to the start of the
       filename. With --all, replacement will be inserted in between every two characters of the
       filename, as well as at the start and end.

       Normally, only the final path component of a filename is updated. (Or with --symlink, only
       the final path component of the link.) But if either expression or replacement contains a
       /, the full path is updated. This can cause a file to be moved between folders. Creating
       folders, and moving files between filesystems, is not supported.

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

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.

SEE ALSO

       mv(1)

REPORTING BUGS

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY

       The rename command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux
       Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.