Batch Folder Renamer

[bob332]

what program will batch rename a bunch of folders? i already have a file renamer but it will not rename folders. any ideas??

 

[bob332]

anybody??

 

[bob332]

anybody? there has to be a program like this...

DESPERATE!!

 

[Armitage]

You don't say what OS. If it's linux, there is a program called krename that you might check out. I haven't used it myself.

Of course you could probably roll your own fairly easily. I'm guessing you want something that will replace a pattern in the file/directory name with some other pattern?

#!/usr/bin/python

import glob
import re

if len(sys.argv) != 3:
[tab]print "USAGE: renamer old_pattern new_pattern"
[tab]sys.exit()

files = glob.glob('*' + sys.argv[1] + '*')

for file in files:
[tab]new_file = re.sub(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], file)
[tab]os.rename(file, new_file)




Note that I haven't actually tried this, the pattern matching part needs some refinement I'm sure.
Should have some more error checking as well.
But that's the basic idea.

 

[Armitage]

Ok, here's a version that actually works!

#!/usr/bin/python

import glob
import re
import sys
import os

if len(sys.argv) != 3:
[tab]print "USAGE: renamer old_pattern new_pattern"
[tab]sys.exit()

files = glob.glob('*' + sys.argv[1] + '*')

for file in files:
[tab]new_file = re.sub(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], file)
[tab]print file, "\t\t", new_file
[tab]os.rename(file, new_file)



I've only done some very rudimentary testing. Don't blame me if it eats your data
Replace the [tab] with an actual tab.

Here's what this code will do for you:
Say you have some files and directories in your local directory:
stuff.f stuffit.f more_stuff.c more_stuff.h dir_stuff

Call renamer like this: renamer stuff STUFF

now you have:
STUFF.f STUFFit.f more_STUFF.c more_STUFF.h dir_STUFF

Of course, it would be nice to have more control of the pattern matching That's left as an exercise for the reader

 

[bob332]

it would be for win xp

 

[Armitage]

<< it would be for win xp >>



The code above should work on windows.

 

[KB]

I don't know of any program to batch folder renames, but you could write a windows script to do it. What are you trying to do? What are the folders supposed to be renamed to?

 

[Armitage]

<< I don't know of any program to batch folder renames, but you could write a windows script to do it. What are you trying to do? What are the folders supposed to be renamed to? >>



Yea, I already wrote him a program to do it. Guess he lost interest.

 

[bob332]

no i haven't lost interest, i have just been very busy. i am also very green when it comes to programming. thank you for the help. this may be a dumb question, but what do i do with the code?

 

[Armitage]

You need to install python on your system. See www.python.org
Then, copy the code section of my post into a file. Replace the [tab] text with actual tabs.
Now, save the file.
You should now be able to run the program from a command line.
Double-clicking it should execute it, but it will just pop up the usage instructions cuz there won't be any variables passed in.

I've never used python on a windows system, so somebody might want to add to this.