Gfilui

I have only spent 5 months with Ubuntu and it has been an awesome experience, I hardly boot into Windows now, but there are some things I miss, like the Bulk Rename Utility I used to have in Windows.

I use the program a lot when I boot into Windows but I'd prefer if there was an alternative or something similar cause the program had a plethora of renaming options with a decent gui.

I'm aware of the rename command in terminal, but I've never had any luck with it.

A screenshot of what it looks like:

Questions

• Is there an alternative of this program for Ubuntu?


• A great command line resource on how to get this done without a gui?

But... But... You've already found the answer... rename really is the best thing since sliced bread. If you need some examples of it doing really cool things, I've written a few in my time here:

• 
  Simple replacement (another example: Changing extensions)


• Zero-padding existing numbers


• Shunting existing parts of a filename around


• Rewriting entire directory structures


• Inserting the creation/modified date from each file

If you need specific help, ask and somebody here can deliver.

Failing that simple Bash scripting is an option in most cases.

_{Sidebar: I defy anybody to call rename or regular expressions complicated after you've seen the screenshot of Bulk Rename Utility. Holy balls, I almost forgot how ugly it was.}

There is the Bulk Rename utility, which is part of Thunar, the default file manager of XFCE desktop environment (the one used by Xubuntu). Selecting multiple files in Thunar and selecting "rename" opens the tool, but it can also be started separately.

It has different options of action, which together may come close to those of the Windows tool.

This documentation may be of help.

Some details also here (mentioning other tools too).

If you prefer to use a different file manager, you may still use this tool. It cannot be installed separately from Thunar but the latter brings very few specific dependencies and can be installed easily. The tool can be started separately though, and can even be integrated as a custom menu action in other files managers like Dolphin and Nautilus.

Example for Dolphin: create the file ~/.local/share/kservices5/bulk-rename-thunar.desktop with these lines:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Service
ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin
MimeType=all/all;
Actions=BulkRename;
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
X-KDE-Priority=TopLevel

[Desktop Action BulkRename]
Name=Bulk Rename
Exec=thunar -B %U
Icon=dialog-information

Pyrenamer is my tool of choice. It's straightforward to use and has a preview mode.

sudo apt-get install pyrenamer

More details from here:

GPRename and pyRenamer are available in the repositories. Both are similar and easy to use, although pyRenamer is a dead project.

I have found a lot of details on tools already mentioned under this question at http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/quickly-batch-rename-files-in-linux.html, and I have edited the answers mentioning them in order to add such details.

There is another tool mentioned there that seems the most advanced:

Metamorphose2

Here's its presentation at the above address:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install metamorphose2

I have used Thunar bulk rename for a long time but the above is much more complex and has a feature that I was missing, the option to undo changes.

This tool seem less intuitive and complicated for simple operations. (A great advantage of the Bulk Rename tool in Thunar is the ability of having a list of files outside the file manager that can be modified easily by drag&drop.)

But once you understand how it works it can be useful.

A few tips:

• You are supposed to first select the "Picker" tab. But by default all files and folders (of the selected path) are selected and, if you do not want to rename them all, you have to un-select them all by clicking "none" and then select them one by one with single-left-click. (I find this annoying, and prefer to put all files that need renaming in a separate folder, and then select the "Picker" tab. - As far as I can tell, that would be the way to go for the Windows tool mentioned in the question either, as its behavior is similar.)




• Once the files are selected, go to the "Renamer" tab and select one of the "Available" actions by double-clicking it. It all becomes available from this point forward.

For what it's worth - the Windows program Bulk Rename Utility works fine in Wine/Playonlinux.

You may want to check this one: rnm (web page).

Some Usage:

rnm file-name -ns new-filename # signle file
rnm ./* -ns '/fn//i/' # files will be sorted and indexed.
rnm ./* -rs '/search/new/g' # 'search' in filenames will be replaced with 'new'
rnm ./* -ns '/fn//i/' -ss 'search' # only files/directories which contain 'search' in their name will be indexed (renamed).
rnm ./* -ns '/fn//id/' -fo # file only mode, directories will be ignored.
rnm ./* -ns '/fn//id/' -fo -dp -1 # recursive to subdirectories all the way.

etc...

To undo an unwanted rename:

rnm -u

You can find more examples/docs here.