Batch rename files

Question

I want to batch re-name a number of files in a directory so that the preceding number and hypen are stripped from the file name.

Old file name: 2904495-XXX_01_xxxx_20130730235001_00000000.NEW
New file name:         XXX_01_xxxx_20130730235001_00000000.NEW

How can I do this with a linux command?

Answer 1

This should make it:

rename 's/^[0-9]*-//;' *

It gets from the beginning the block [0-9] (that is, numbers) many times, then the hyphen - and deletes it from the file name.

---

If rename is not in your machine, you can use a loop and mv:

mv "$f" "${f#[0-9]*-}"

Test

$ ls
23-aa  hello aaa23-aa
$ rename 's/^[0-9]*-//;' *
$ ls
aa  hello aaa23-aa

Or:

$ ls
23-a  aa23-a  hello
$ for f in *;
> do
>   mv "$f" "${f#[0-9]*-}"
> done
$ ls
a  aa23-a  hello