Rename multiple files at once

[Stephen Ryan]

On 12/2/05, Wade Smart <wade at wadesmart.com> wrote:
>
> 12022005 1312 GMT-5
>
> I have a odd situation where I have to rename 130 picture files from a
> random number to 1.jpg, 2.jpg, etc. Is there anyway to automate that?
> Quickly!
>
> Wade


Yes, there is.  If the files are all currently in the same directory, and
are all named something_or_other.jpg, the following will rename them to
1.jpg, 2.jpg, in a random-ish order:

$ for i in *.jpg ; do mv $i $((++c)).jpg ; done
$ unset c
$ unset i

The "for i in FOO ; do BAR ; done" part runs a particular command once for
each file specified by FOO.  The precise command is specified by BAR, and it
renames (mv) that file to a number followed by ".jpg"; it also adds one to
the number so that each file gets a different number.

"unset c" and "unset i" just clear the values of those two shell variables;
if you close the terminal window afterwards, you won't need to run those two
commands.

Holler if you need more help, or if I misunderstood your problem.
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