How to Rename Files in Linux

A command-line terminal is an essential tool for administrating Linux servers. It provides Linux users some of the best productivity tools while saving your machine’s resources.

To effectively use the potential of your OS, you will need to have strong knowledge of the fundamentals – simple Linux commands, like renaming existing files and folders.  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to rename folders in Linux.

How to Rename Files in Linux with the mv Command

Shortened from “move,” the mv command is one of the easiest commands to use.  It can do two basic but essential tasks when handling files on Linux. One is moving files from one location to another, and the other is renaming one or more files through the terminal.

First, let’s see how renaming files with mv works on Linux.

To begin, we access our server through the command line using SSH. If you are unsure about SSH and would like to learn more, here’s a helpful tutorial.

To access our server, type the following into your terminal:

ssh your-user@your-server

If we are using a local computer, instead of a server, then we will have to open the terminal from the main menu.

Afterward, it is important to know how the mv command works. To do this, we run the following:

mv --help

As we can see in the previous image, the basic use of the mv command is as follows:

mv [option] [SOURCE]...[DIRECTORY]

Here are some of the most popular mv options:

• -f – shows no message before overwriting a file.
• -i – displays warning messages before overwriting a file.
• -u – only move a file if it is new or if it does not exist in the destination.
• -v – show what the command does.

And the parameters are:

[SOURCE] – the source destination of the file

[DESTINATION] – the destination directory.

Rename File on Linux Using the mv Command

If we want to rename a file, we can do it like this:

mv oldnamefile1 newnamefile1

Assuming we are located in the directory, and there is a file called file1.txt, and we want to change the name to file2.txt. We will need to type the following:

mv file1.txt file2.txt

As simple as that. However, if you are not in the directory, you will need to type a bit more. For example:

cd /home/user/docs/files
mv file1.txt file2.txt

Rename Multiple Files With the mv Command

The mv command can only rename one file, but it can be used with other commands to rename multiple files.

Let’s take the commands, find, for, or while loops and renaming multiple files.

For example, when trying to change all files in your current directory from .txt extension to .pdf extension, you will use the following command:

for f in *txt; do
   mv -- "$f" "${f%.txt}.pdf"
done

This will create a loop (for) looking through the list of files with the extension .txt. It will then replace each .txt extension with .pdf. Finally, it will end the loop (done).

If you want more advanced features, you’ll need to use the rename command, we’re about to cover.

Rename Files on Linux Using the Rename Command

With the rename command, you will have a bit more control. Many Linux configurations include it by default. But, if you don’t have it installed, you can do it in just a minute with a simple command.

In the case of Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and derivatives:

sudo apt install rename

On the other hand, if you are using CentOS 7 or RHEL:

sudo yum install rename

And, if you are using Arch Linux:

yay perl-rename ## or yaourt -S perl-rename

Now, we can start using the rename command. In general, the basic syntax of the rename command looks like this:

rename 's/old-name/new-name/' files

It may seem complex at first, but it’s a lot simpler than it might seem.

In this example, we will create a new folder called filetorename, and using the touch command, we will create 5 files.

mkdir filetorename

cd filetorename

touch file{1..5}.txt

ls

With the last ls command, you can view the files that you created.

If we want to rename a single file called file1.txt, the sentence would be like this:

rename ‘s/file1/newfile1/’ file1.txt

If we wanted to change the extension to all files, for example, to .php. We could do it this way:

rename ‘s/.txt/.php/’ *.txt

ls

We can also specify another directory where the files you want to rename are.

rename ‘s/.txt/.php/’ FILE/PATH

We’d like to mention that rename uses a regular expression of Perl, meaning this command has extensive possibilities.

Finally, it is a good idea to check all the command options. You can view them in the terminal by executing:

rename –help

Some common examples of how to use the rename command are:

• Convert filenames to uppercase:

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

• Convert filenames to lowercase:

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

• Replace spaces in filenames with underscores:

  rename 'y/ /_/' *

Remove Rename Command

If you no longer wish to have rename installed on your system, remove it using the software manager. Or from the terminal.

For Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and derivatives:

sudo apt remove rename

And for CentOS and RHEL:

sudo yum remove rename

That’s it, rename is removed from your Linux machine.

Conclusion

Renaming files in Linux using the terminal is a simple and practical task but sometimes very important. Knowing how to do it is something every server manager should know.

As we have seen, there are two commands that can do it. One is simpler than the other, but both accomplish the task.

We encourage you to continue researching these commands and improving the quality of your everyday workflow.

How to Rename Files In Linux FAQ