snippetbashTip

rename — Rename multiple files. WARNING: This command will overwrite files without prompting unless the dry-r

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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commandfilesmultiplewarningthisclirename

linux

Problem

How to use the rename command: Rename multiple files. WARNING: This command will overwrite files without prompting unless the dry-run option is used. Note: This page refers to the command from the util-linux package. More information: <https://manned.org/rename>.

Solution

rename — Rename multiple files. WARNING: This command will overwrite files without prompting unless the dry-run option is used. Note: This page refers to the command from the util-linux package. More information: <https://manned.org/rename>.

Rename files using simple substitutions (substitute foo with bar wherever found):

rename {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Dry-run - display which renames would occur without performing them:

rename {{[-vn|--verbose --no-act]}} {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Do not overwrite existing files:

rename {{[-o|--no-overwrite]}} {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Change file extensions:

rename {{.ext}} {{.bak}} {{*.ext}}

Prepend "foo" to all filenames in the current directory:

rename '' '{{foo}}' {{*}}

Rename a group of increasingly numbered files zero-padding the numbers up to 3 digits:

rename {{foo}} {{foo00}} {{foo?}} && rename {{foo}} {{foo0}} {{foo??}}

Code Snippets

Rename files using simple substitutions (substitute `foo` with `bar` wherever found)

rename {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Dry-run - display which renames would occur without performing them

rename {{[-vn|--verbose --no-act]}} {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Do not overwrite existing files

rename {{[-o|--no-overwrite]}} {{foo}} {{bar}} {{*}}

Change file extensions

rename {{.ext}} {{.bak}} {{*.ext}}

Prepend "foo" to all filenames in the current directory

rename '' '{{foo}}' {{*}}

Context

tldr-pages: linux/rename

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