change all file names (prefix to postfix)

I have a directory containing thousands of files with names

t_00xx_000xxx.png

I want to change their names to 00xx_000xxx_t.png

so take the prefix and put it as a postfix, can this be done in only one command

3 Answers

This is possible with the rename command:

First check what would be done (by suppliying -n). If it looks good, drop the -n and run again:

rename -n 's/t_(.+)\.png$/$1_t.png/' *.png # check only
rename 's/t_(.+)\.png$/$1_t.png/' *.png # actually rename the files

1

If the prefix is separated by an underscore (_), you can do the following:

rename -n 's/^([^_]*)_(.*)\.(.*)$/$2_$1.$3/' file(s)

It will work with any prefix and any extension.

Remove the -n to perform the rename if you're happy with the result.

---

Explanation:

• s/search_pattern/replace_pattern/

Search pattern:

• ^ - Match the beginning of the file name
• ([^_]*) - Match any character that is not an underscore [^_]* and capture it as $1 (...)
• _ - Match the first underscore
• (.*)\.(.*) - Match anything .* before and after the last . and capture it as $2 and $3. The . must be escaped because it is a special character in Regex --> \.
• $ - Match the end of the line

Replace pattern:

• $2_$1.$3 - "Filename_Prefix.Extension" from the search pattern captures.

14

mmv (available from the universe repository) is nice for this kind of thing, where simple shell globs rather than regular expression can do the job

Ex.

mmv -n -- '*_*_*.png' '#2_#3_#1.png'
t_00xx_000xxx.png -> 00xx_000xxx_t.png

Remove the -n once you are happy that it's working right.

3

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