Do you create or manage a LOT of files? Do you have image files taken from cameras that are all named IMG_XXX.JPG (where XXX is a sequential number)? Do you stores of files you wish to change the names to reflect a date, a department, etc? If so, have you scoured the network trying to locate something, anything, that will help you do massive renames quickly...and you don't want to have to write a bash script to do so? Well, halt your search...the tool you need is GPRename.
GPRename is batch renamer for both files and directories that is released under the GPL v3. It's easy to install, and even easier to use. In fact, GPRename is so easy to use you will find the task of batch renaming (one that used to be a real pain) one of the easiest tasks you have. In this article I am going to show you how to install and use GPRename so you can start batch renaming all of those files and folders just waiting for a name change.
Features
The feature list of GPRename isn't the most lengthy of lists, but what more do you need from a batch renamer than:
That's pretty much the gist of the features. Let's get on with the installation.
Installation
As you would expect, the installation of GPRename is simple:
That's it. When the installation is complete, close the Add/Remove Software tool and get ready to rename.
Usage
To start the tool in GNOME click Applications > Accessories > GPRename. To start the tool in KDE click Start > Applications > Utilities > GPRename. Which will open up the main window (See Figure 1).
As you can see I have GPRename opened to the ~/Pictures directory which is displaying only three images (it's a new account). With these three images I can demonstrate how this tool works. It's actually quite simple. let's say you want to add the date to all of the file names in the directory. To do this follow these steps:
Enter the data string you want to add in the text field.
Now let's say you simply want to number the files in a directory. This is just as easy. To do this follow these easy steps:
Make sure Keep Existing Names (either Before or After) is checked.
That's all it takes to batch rename files with Linux.
Final thoughts
GPRename is an outstanding tool to use in place of writing shell scripts in order to rename multiple files in Linux. You won't find an easier tool for this task (if you're not already used to whipping up a shell script).
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Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.
Great tool for those of us with lot’s of digital photos on our machines.
Any body have a better tool they know of or is this the best?
I use KRename which I really like; it is very powerful but I mostly just use the Find/Replace function within KRename. Dolphin can also bulk-rename files with a numbering sequence by just putting a # in the rename field (img_#.png would sequentially rename the selected files).
I may have to check into this app however, so thanks for the heads up!
Excellent – i was using Metamorphose’2 for this and had to add their ppa. I will switch to this since it’s within the standard Ubuntu apt.
This tool does not do all that much, if you have a directory with a 1000 subdirectories it just sits there! If I have to go into each subdirectory by hand I might as well do it by hand. Very frustrating! I can’t be the only one out there with the need to recursively go through many subdirectories and rename a bunch of files.
This is indeed a brilliant utility; using it on Linux Mint. Is there a way to access directories of files stored on a networked device, eg. a NAS?
Did you find an answer? I have used this utility for years, now I have a network storage drive connected to the router and I can not access it.