Rename multiple files

rename_multiple_files

# Rename multiple files
# http://www.24hourapps.com/2009/03/linux-tips-10-rename-multiple-files.html

# Renaming multiple files in Linux is surprisingly difficult given the simplistic power
# provided by many other system commands. Unlike DOS, which provided a rename command that
# allowed wild cards, Linux's rename/mv command is less versatile. Therefore to rename files one needs to write a loop. Luckily bash helps a lot here.

# Lets say we have in our directory a number of .txt files that we need to rename to .nfo.
# To do this we would need to use the command:

for f in *.txt; do mv "${f}" "${f/.txt/.nfo}"; done;

# It is quite a long command, but it basically executes a loop and tells it to take each f file
# name in *.txt and give it a name where a match for .txt is replaced with .nfo. While I have
# not tried more complex patterns it should be possible to use any regular expression. Please
# note that the above code only does one replacement. If multiple is needed then two slashes are
# required after f, ie. {$f//.txt/.nfo}