Use export…file on disk and instead of jpg or what ever use copy…this will copy your file and you can use the variables or add a prefix suffix whatever… If you also put them in a different folder it will be easy to delete the originals if that is what you want to do…so its not a rename as DT will try to remain non-destructive for all options but you can perhaps leverage this…
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You can export using them and there is an option called copy which copies your file with the new name…DT is non-destructive by nature so its not otherwise likely to have a rename feature…
Copy is in the file type selection…
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Thanks for the suggestion, I will take a look.
Really, the process I adopted (been forced into) w/ dt is less effort than I had to put in when using other programs. Instead of copying the images from a mem card to a folder, importing the images and using whatever renaming function was available, I now do it all with a single process during import. At this point, though it is a different process, ultimately it worked out to be better/easier.
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I use tagging capability of dt to link pictures with persons. This hast also the advantage to store information about more than one person (whole family on a Foto).
I use the following file naming pattern:
20250316_234516_00.ARW.
If there are more shots taken the same second as _00.ARW, they become _01.ARW, _02.ARW etc. Those are not subseconds, just a serial number.
Is this possible with this script?
I’m having some problems renaming DSC06586.ARW + DSC06586.ARW.xmp pairs using ExifTool due to darktable’s non-standard .ext.xmp XMP naming scheme.
find the variables you can use when renaming on import here: darktable user manual - import
What script?
Sorry. Here:
Thanks. It seems it’s sadly not possible to recreate my naming scheme.
maybe file a feature request (Sign in to GitHub · GitHub) - at least a variable for milliseconds is defined to be used in metadata, so maybe not impossible to use it also during import: see darktable user manual - variables
Thanks! I will. However, millisecond metadata is not available for all cameras and is thus not safe if you want a consistent naming scheme for all your present and future raw files. 
What makes sense (to me), after 24 years of shooting raw, is 20250316_234516_00.ARW, where _00 is a “serial number” for images taken the same second. If there’s only one image taken at 23:45:16 (HH:MM:SS), there’ll only be a 20250316_234516_00.ARW.
If I took three pictures at 23:45:16, they would be named 20250316_234516_00.ARW, 20250316_234516_01.ARW and 20250316_234516_02.ARW.
EDIT: added time pattern info for 23:45:16.
This isn’t a pattern, it’s a filename. A pattern would be YYYYMMDD_???_??.ARW. I recognize the YYYYMMDD as year, month, day. Not sure what the next number is supposed to represent, and the last 2 are a sequence number based on multiple images in the same second?
If you explain the naming pattern then we could help figure out a solution.
Correct.
HHMMSS
Correct.
So, YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_SEQUENCENUMBERPERSECOND.EXT. Basically the same dumbed down ISO 8601 that Google has been using for Android, but with a sequence number per second added.
For completeness sake, here’s my dir structure too:
YYYYY/YYYYMMDD/YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_SEQUENCENUMBERPERSECOND.EXT.
As expressed in ExifTool:
/%Y/%Y%m%d/%Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%+.2c.%%e
I’m having some trouble renaming the default camera filenames in ExifTool (with darktable _01.xmp for duplicates) due to darktable’s non-convential XMP file naming and would love to find a renaming solution within darktable.
I use a very similar pattern, but during import. So that part is feasible. How many images you want to rename? Why do that after editing?
I have some dark years of unsorted files. It’s 30 000 files or more files.
They’re currently DSC02055.ARW and DSC02055.ARW.xmp style pairs with DSC02055_01.ARW.xmp and DSC02055_02.ARW.xmp style duplicates (sometimes).
Here’s what I want:
It’s certainly doable with a script. I have to think if it’s doable with the current rename script
OK, promising! Get back if you come to think of a solution.
Perhaps the last message from a thread of mine on the ExifTool forum could be of help.
Here’s a script that will do the rename. It has shortcuts for renaming a selection, or the collection (current filmroll). You can also enable an option in Preferences->Lua options to have the files automatically renamed after import.
I would recommend you test this before applying it to all of your images just in case I didn’t understand something completely.
rename_by_date_time.zip (2.4 KB)
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Not having used lua scripts in darktable before, how do use/install this script? I use the Flatpak version. What I’ve done:
- I created
~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable/config/darktable/luarc/and placed the script there. - I clicked install scripts and execute (or something like that) in darktable. That created a new
~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable/config/darktable/lua/directory and moved my recently created~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable/config/darktable/luarc/to~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable/config/darktable/luarc.old/
For sure!
The install scripts and execute download the scripts into ~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable/config/darktable/lua. Under that there are directories and you could drop the script in the one called contrib.
The next time you start darktable, script_manager (bottom left panel) will find it and then you can click the power button to enable it. Go to Preferences->shortcuts, then click on lua scripts and you can assign shortcuts.
I shoot sports with lots of bursts so I had plenty of images to test on. I managed to get to _07 for the sequence a few times.
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