Command Line (or batch file) rename all files in a folder (Windows)

Question

I need to rename all of the files in a folder with the following filename format;

itemID-straight-bottle.png

TO

itemID-bottle.png

How can i accomplish this with a cmd script or in the command line?

example;

REDHI20806-straight-bottle.png TO REDHI20806-bottle.png

I should have said, this is in Windows and i want to use either command line or a batch file to run this renaming on all files in a folder on a specific drive

Answer 1

short answer

On Windows, you can use PowerShell, that is installed by default on Windows 7, and can be downloaded and installed on previous versions. With PowerShell you can do the rename as:

ls | foreach-object -process {ren $_ (%{$_ -replace "-straight",""})}

On Unix/Linux, nothing specific needs to be installed, and you can do the rename as:

ls | awk '{print("mv "$1" "$1)}' | cut -f -3,5- -d '-' | sh

examples

Windows Example

Given

PS C:\rename-me> ls

    Directory: C:\rename-me

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20806-straight-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20807-straight-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20808-straight-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20809-straight-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20810-straight-bottle.png

Doing It

PS C:\rename-me> ls | foreach-object -process {ren $_ (%{$_ -replace "-straight",""})}

Result

PS C:\rename-me> ls

    Directory: C:\rename-me

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20806-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20807-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20808-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20809-bottle.png
-a---         10/9/2011   1:35 PM          0 REDHI20810-bottle.png

Unix/Linux Example

Given

$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20806-straight-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20807-straight-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20808-straight-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20809-straight-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20810-straight-bottle.png

Doing It

$ ls | awk '{print("mv "$1" "$1)}' | cut -f -3,5- -d '-' | sh

Result

$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20806-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20807-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20808-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20809-bottle.png
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Oct  7 00:54 REDHI20810-bottle.png