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linuxrenamebulk

use rename command on first 5 characters of a file

using linux's rename utility I have files that are named similar to

kbb.12.06.14.actual_name.jpg
kbb.13.05.13.actual_name.jpg
kbb.11.11.29.actual_name.jpg

and I want to change that to 

actual_name.kbb.12.06.14.jpg
actual_name.kbb.13.05.13.jpg
actual_name.kbb.11.11.29.jpg

I know I can get the beginning of a file with

rename 's/^/something/' *

but is there a way to select from the beginning to a certain length in the file? Similar to an array.

Solution

  • The perl regex syntax for selecting the first 13 characters would be this:

    s/^.{13}/something/'

    Similarly, if you wanted to match the last 13 characters you could use this:

    s/.{13}$/something/'

    The ^ is an anchor to the beginning of the string and $ is an anchor for the end of the string.