Get the Perl rename utility instead of the built-in rename
I can only speak for Debian. The two programs are called
/usr/bin/rename.ul
from theutil-linux
package (hence the .ul suffix)/usr/bin/prename
from theperl
package
The actual rename
command works via the /etc/alternatives
mechanism, whereby
/usr/bin/rename
is a symlink to/etc/alternatives/rename
/etc/alternatives/rename
is a symlink to/usr/bin/prename
The same problem has been bugging me on Cygwin, which is a Red Hat product, so should be more similar to Fedora. I'll have a look on my company laptop on Monday. And I remember the Perl-rename having worked there sometimes. Probably before I installed util-linux
.
If you install the Perl-rename to /usr/local/bin
it will have precedence over rename
from util-linux
. Same goes for the manpage when installed to /usr/local/share/man/man1/
.
I've just created a separate Perl-rename package on Github: https://github.com/subogero/rename
You can install it using cpan, which is the perl repository similar to pip for python.
Here is a tutorial on using cpan.
If you try to run rename it it looks like this
rename --help
call: rename from to files...
To install the perl rename you can do the following. You might need to install a few dependencies, you can generally just push enter
cpan
cpan1> install File::Rename
CPAN: Storable loaded ok (v2.20)
Going to read '/root/.cpan/Metadata'
Database was generated on Wed, 30 Sep 2015 08:17:02 GMT
Running install for module 'File::Rename'
....
Running Build install
Installing /usr/local/share/man/man1/rename.1
Installing /usr/local/share/perl5/File/Rename.pm
Installing /usr/local/share/man/man3/File::Rename.3pm
Installing /usr/local/bin/rename
Writing /usr/local/lib64/perl5/auto/File/Rename/.packlist
RMBARKER/File-Rename-0.20.tar.gz
./Build install -- OK
That is how you would install the rename from cpan.
Next is to get it working on your system. As you might have more then one rename installed.
which rename
/usr/bin/rename
When you actually want this one.
/usr/local/bin/rename --help
Usage:
rename [ -h|-m|-V ] [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] [ -e|-E *perlexpr*]*|*perlexpr*
[ *files* ]
Options:
-v, -verbose
Verbose: print names of files successfully renamed.
-n, -nono
No action: print names of files to be renamed, but don't rename.
-f, -force
Over write: allow existing files to be over-written.
-h, -help
Help: print SYNOPSIS and OPTIONS.
-m, -man
Manual: print manual page.
-V, -version
Version: show version number.
-e Expression: code to act on files name.
May be repeated to build up code (like "perl -e"). If no -e, the
first argument is used as code.
-E Statement: code to act on files name, as -e but terminated by
';'.
I just put it into /usr/bin/
but with a slight different name to make sure I did not break any existing scripts / programs the depend on the old one.
ln -s /usr/local/bin/rename /usr/bin/rename.pl