Help please with commands/script to rename my photo files

Lounge
1

I’ve messed up a number of folders by using the wrong ID numbers on downloading from the camera. I need to rename the files as follows -

for each file in a given folder
if filename begins “_6D_0” then
rename file changing the zero to a one

E.g. _6D_00347-happy-new-year.CR2 becomes _6D_10347-happy-new-year.CR2

I can see ls foldername | grep '_6D_0' produces the relevant files, and
mv -T oldname newname renames a file,
but I’ve no idea how to send the list of candidates to be renamed.

There are no sub-folders beginning “_6D_0” to complicate things.

If anyone can supply the commands I’d be most grateful. Please keep it simple! I’m thinking I could hardcode the folder as I work on each one in turn.
Thanks for reading.

2

But careful, please! It is far too easy to make a ooops™
in 0.02 seconds flat and leave you with an empty folder — or worse…

3

From the parent directory run:

rename -d -n 's/^_6D_0/_6D_1/' */_6D_*CR2

's/^_6D_0/_6D_1/' this is a simple regular expression, in plain English: search (the s/) for _6D_0 at the beginning of the filename (the ^) and replace with _6D_1.

To test run with -n, remove -n to actually rename.

-n, --nono
  No action: print names of files to be renamed, but don't rename.

The -d is needed to only match against the filename, not the full path.

-d, --filename, --nopath, --nofullpath
  Do not rename directory: only rename filename component of path.
1 Like
4

Have you edited with these names…if you rename outside your editing program you might lose your edits

5

I’d personally use emacs wdired mode which let’s you edit the names of files and folders as if they were text in a text file.

6

Thanks for the info folks, that’s great, most helpful.
@K-1, I think I’ll start with yours. The files are also jpg and xmp, so would I just leave off the “CR2”, i.e. the last char would be the asterisk?

7

Yes, the last argument should only match the files you want to rename using regular bash wildcards. You can test the pattern with ls

8

Thanks, it’s done. The d option doesn’t exist on my system (Ubuntu 18.04, the desktop it came with). And I must have been confused about parent directory, ended up doing
rename 's/^_6D_0/_6D_1/' _6D_*.*
and it was fine.

@priort, thanks for the warning. I don’t use dt’s database so I escaped that complication.

Thanks @Claes but “TLDR” !

@paperdigits - for another day…