Re: [Help-bash] how to bulk rename files

[Conrad J. Sabatier]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:44:26 -0500, lxnf98mm-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w wrote:

> I have many files, 2.5 million, that I have to make available to Windows
> folks They demand that the files have a extension added Is there an
> efficient method of bulk renaming files
> 
> Richard

My instinctive response to this question would be to use the find 
command, or perhaps a list of filenames that you've already generated 
somehow.

First case:

find <root-dir-of-search> -type f -name "*some-pattern*" -print0 |
xargs -0 -I@ mv "@" "@.ext"

or

find <root-dir-of-search> -type f -name "*some-pattern*" |
while read
do
        mv "$REPLY" "$REPLY.ext"
done

Sometimes, it seems, using the while loop instead of xargs is faster.

Second case:

while read
do
        mv "$REPLY" "$REPLY.ext"
done < file-list

Of course, there are other ways, but these are my most commonly used 
idioms.

-- 
Conrad J. Sabatier
address@hidden