Shell Scripts for Manipulating Filenames

Powershell script to replace spaces with dashes in filenames, and to convert to lowercase.

get-childitem *.md | foreach {rename-item $_ $_.name.replace(" ","-")}; dir . -r | % { if ($_.Name -cne $_.Name.ToLower()) { ren $_.FullName $_.Name.ToLower() } }

source

For renaming files, Batch Script provides the REN or RENAME command.

Rename files with CMD

RENAME [drive:][path][directoryname1 | filename1] [directoryname2 | filename2]

Rename file extensions

rename *.txt *.bak

Rename single file

rename "TESTA.txt" "TESTB.txt"

Rename whole filenames

cd C:\folder
for /f "Tokens=*" %f in ('dir /l/b/a-d') do (rename "%f" "%f")
pause

Convert filenames to lowercase

for /F %%a in ('dir /L /B') do rename %%a %%a

Rename files with PowerShell

Get-ChildItem "C:\folder" -recurse |
  Where {-Not $_.PSIsContainer} |
  Rename-Item -NewName {$_.FullName.ToLower()}

# Replace spaces in file names with "-"
for f in *\ *; do mv "$f" "${f// /-}"; done

A short script this week to replace spaces in filenames in a given folder:

# Looping over files, forging new filename, and then renaming it.
# Spaces will be replaced by underscores (_).
for oldname in *
do
  newname=`echo $oldname | sed -e 's/ /_/g'`
  mv "$oldname" "$newname"
done
# Spaces are now underscores

This one remove the spaces, only the sed expression is different:

for oldname in *
do
  newname=`echo $oldname | sed -e 's/ //g'`
  mv "$oldname" "$newname"
done

And this one lowercase all letters in addition to removing spaces:

for oldname in *
do
  newname=`echo $oldname | sed -e 's/ //g' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`
  mv "$oldname" "$newname"
done