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NAME

tren - Advanced File Renaming

SYNOPSIS

tren.py [-cbefghqtvx] [-l string] [-r old=new]... file|dir file|dir ...

DESCRIPTION

Warning

tren is a powerful file and directory renaming tool. Be sure you know what you're about to do. If you're not, run the program in test mode (invoke with the -t option) to see what could happen. You have been warned!

tren is a general purpose file and directory renaming tool. Unlike commands like mv, tren is particularly well suited for renaming batches of files and/or directories with a single command line invocation. tren eliminates the tedium of having to script simpler tools to provide higher-level renaming capabilities.

tren will not allow you to rename a file or directory if one with the new name already exists. Such attempts will cause no change to the file or directory being processed and a warning message will be displayed. This is intentional to force you to manually rename or remove the file or directory that would have been clobbered by a rename. You can override this default and force a renaming and thus the removal of such existing files or directories (-f option).

tren supports a variety of renaming mechanisms. The one thing they have in common is that you must specify an old string which will be replaced by a new string when the file or directory is renamed. Each of these can take on one of several forms:

---------- ----------

Old String New String ---------- ----------

Literal Text Literal Text Regular Expression Literal Text With Templates Literal Text With Templates

The sections below describe each of these mechanisms.

Literal String Substitution

Literal String Substitution is just that - it replaces one literal string with another to rename the target file or directory. This is handy when you have files and directories that have a common set of characters in them you'd like to change. For instance:

tren.py -r .Jpeg=.jpg *.Jpeg

would rename all files (or directories) whose names contained the string .Jpeg and replace it with .jpg. It's important to realize that such a substitution takes place anywhere in the file name, not just at the end or "extension" (as it is called in Windows). You can limit the replacement to just the "name" (-b) or "extension" (-e) portions of the filename.

You may specify multiple replacement operations (-r) on the tren command line:

tren.py -r .Jpeg=.jpg -r old=ReallyOld *

This would rename all the files in the current directory, replacing .Jpeg with .jpg and old with ReallyOld anywhere these strings appeared in any of the file or directory names.

By default, only the first instance of the string is replaced in the name, but you can use the -g option to replace all instances of the old string with the new one.

If you need to include the equals sign as part of the old string or the new string literal text, you have to escape it (\=):

tren.py -r name\=bob=name\=sally name=bob.dbms

This renames the file name=bob.dbms to name=sally.dbms.

Using Regular Expressions

Ordinarily tren treats both the old string you specify with the -r option literally. However, it is sometimes handy to be able to write a regular expression to specify what you want replaced. If you specify the -x option, tren will treat your old string as a Python style regex, compile it (or try to anyway!) and use it to select which strings to replace. This makes it much easier to rename files that have repeated characters or patterns, and groups of files that have similar, but not idential strings in their names you'd like to replace.

Say you have a set of files that are similar, but not idential in name, and you want to rename them all:

sbbs-1.txt
sbbbs-2.txt
sbbbbbbbbs-3.txt

Suppose you want to rename them, replacing two or more instances of b with X. It is tedious to have to write a separate literal -r old:new string substitution for each instance above. This is where regular expressions can come in handy. When you invoke the -x option, tren understands this to mean that the old portion of the replacement option is to be treated as a Python style regular expression. That way, a single string can be used to match many cases:

tren.py -x -r bb+:X *.txt

This renames the files to:

sXs-1.txt
sXs-2.txt
sXs-3.txt

Keep in mind that a literal string is a subset of a regular expression. This effectively means that with -x processing enabled you can include both regular expressions and literal text in your "old string" specification. The only requirement is that the string taken as a whole be a valid Python regular expression. If it is not, tren will display an error message to that effect.

Because Python regular expressions can make use of the = symbol, you need a way to distinguish between an = used in a regular exression and the same symbol used to separate the old and new operands for the -r option. Where this symbol needs to appear in a regular expression, it has to be escaped like this: \=.

An Overview Templates

tren implements the notion of Renaming Templates. These can appear in either the old- or the new string components of a -r renaming argument.

It is sometimes useful to be able to take a group of files or directories whose names have nothing in common and impose a common naming scheme on them. For example, suppose you and your friends pool your vacation photos but each of your cameras uses a slightly different naming scheme. You might want to just reorder them by the date and time each picture was taken, for example. That way you end up with one coherent set of named and numbered files. You might have something like this:

DSC002.jpg      (Bob's camera,  taken 1-5-2010 at noon)
dc0234.Jpg      (Mary's camera, taken 1-5-2010 at 8am)
032344.jpeg     (Sid's camera,  taken 1-3-2010 at 4pm)

It would be nice to get these in order somehow.

Renaming Templates provide this ability. Given a list of files, you apply a "template" or pattern to be used when renaming them. This template is nothing more than a string containing so-called Renaming Tokens built into tren, and optionally, literal text, and even regular expressions (old string only).

There's a whole section later in this document on template construction and the use of renaming tokens, but here's a simple example to illustrate the general idea using the files above:

tren.py -r =/D/-MyVacation-/+T0001/.jpeg *.jp*

This would rename all the files in the current directory ending with .jp*. The /D/ would be replaced with the date the picture was taken. The /+T0001/ refers to a starting sequence number to uniquely identify pictures taken on the same date. The other strings in the template, -MyVacation- and .jpeg, are inserted literally in the final file names. After we ran this command, the files above would end up with these names:

20100103-MyVacation-0001.jpeg       (Sid's)
20100105-MyVacation-0001.jpeg       (Mary's)
20100105-MyVacation-0002.jpeg       (Bob's)

Notice that the files taken on the same date have been sequenced by the time-of-day they were taken because we included the /+T0001/ renaming token in our pattern. The + here means to construct the sequence in ascending order. A - would specify descending order.

There are many other renaming tokens and ways to construct all manner of clever templates. These are discussed below in the section entitled TEMPLATE CONSTRUCTION.

Notice that there is no old string in our example above. That is, there is nothing to the left of the = symbol in the -r option. This effectively means "match anything" in the existing file or directory name. If you were using regular expressions (-x) you could do the same thing with:

-r *=/D/-MyVacation-/+T001/.jpeg *.jp*

Ordinarily the template text replaces the entire existing filename when you do this. You can limit the replacement to either the "name" (-b) or "extension" (-e) portions of the filename.

Of course, you don't have to replace the entire filename when using templates. It's perfectly legitimate to replace only a portion of the existing name:

tren.py -r file=/D/-file  file-1 file.2

This would rename our files to: 20100101-file-1 and 20100101-file.2

You can even use templates in your old string specification. For instance, suppose you manage a number of different systems that set their system name in an environment variable called SYSNAME. You might then do something like this:

tren.py -x -r /$SYSNAME/*.bku=/$SYSNAME/*.bku.old

If your system name were "matrix", then the command above would only rename files in the form matrix<anytext>bku. If your system name were "modar", then the command above would only rename files in the form modar<anytext>bku.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing things like this:

  1. The /$SYSNAME/ in the old string is used to find the text to rename, whereas the same renaming token in the new string means insert the contents of that environment variable here.
  2. Renaming tokens are always evaluated before any regular expression processing takes place. It's up to you to make sure that when you combine the two (as we have in the example above), that the final result is still a valid Python regular expression. This may involve explicit quoting of the renaming tokens used in the old string specification.

OPTIONS

-b

Only perform renaming within "name" portion of file or directory name.

(Default: Substitute within the entire file or directory name)

Many applications use the suffix of a filename to indicate the contents or type of file. By default, tren does renaming in the entire filename including the extension. For example doing this:

tren.py -r eg=ug   peg.jpeg

Renames the file to pug.jpug .. probably not what you want.

The -b option tells tren to only perform string renaming in the actual "name portion" of the filename thereby cirumventing problems like this:

tren.py -b -r eg=ug   peg.jpeg   # Renames file to pug.jpeg
-c

Collapse case when doing string substitution.

(Default: Search for string to replace is case sensitive.)

When looking for a match on the old string to replace, tren will ignore the case of the characters found in the filename. For example:

tren.py -c -r Old:NEW Cold.txt fOlD.txt

This renames both files to CNEW.txt and fNEW.txt respectively. Notice that the new (replacement) string's case is preserved.
-e

Only perform renaming within "extension" portion of or directory name.

(Default: Substitute within the entire file or directory name)

This option is the inverse of -b. It instructs tren to do the requested renaming only in the filename "extension" not on the file name portion. For example:

tren.py -e -r pe=p   peg.jpeg   # Renames file to peg.jpg
-f

Force renaming even if target file or directory name already exists.

(Default: Skip renaming if a file or directory already exists by the same name as the target.)
-g

Replace all instances (greedy replace) of the old string with the new.

(Default: Only the first matching string is replaced.)

Ordinarily, tren only replaces the single leftmost instance of a string in the entire filename (default), the name portion (-b) or the extension (-e). If you want all instances of a particular string replaced, use this option to enable "greedy" replacement:

tren.py -g -r p:P pop.txp    # Renames file to: PoP.txP
-h Print help information.
-l string

File "extension" delimiter string.

(Default: ".")

tren has to know what separates the "name" from the "extension" in a filename. By default, it uses the rightmost . character. You can change it with this option to "divide" the filename into name and extension for renaming purposes, using any string you like. This is particularly helpful with -b and -e options:

tren.py -b -l .long.txt -r long:short long.long.txt.long.txt.foo

This would rename the file to:

short.short.txt.long.txt.foo

Notice that tren looks for the rightmost instance of the separator to split the whole filename into name and extension components. Notice also that when you do this, no renaming of characters within the separator takes place.
-q

Quiet mode, do not show progress.

(Default: Display progress)

Ordinarily, tren displays what it is doing as it processes each file. If you prefer to not see this "noisy" output, use the -q option. Note that this does not suppress warning and error messages.

This option is ignored when running in test mode (-t).
-r

Replace "oldstring" with "newstring" in file names.

Use this option to specify which strings you want to replace in each file name. These strings are treated literally unless you also invoke the -x option.

You can have multiple instances of this option on your tren command line:

tren.py -e old:new -e txt:doc old-old.txt

This renames the file to:

new-old.doc

By default, tren only replaces the first (leftmost) instance of the old string with the new.

This option's behavior is modified by the -b, -c, -e, g, l, and x options.

If you need to use the = symbol within either the old or new string, simply escape it: \=
-t

Test mode, don't rename, just show what the program would do (ignores -q).

tren is very powerful and capable of doing nasty things to your files (like making a file disappear when another one is renamed over it). For this reason, it is helpful to test your tren commands before actually using them. With this option enabled, tren will print out diagnostic information about what your command would do, without actually doing it.
-v Print detailed program version information and exit.
-x

Treat the old string in a -r replacement as a Python style regular expression for matching purposes.

(Default: Treat the old string as literal text)

TEMPLATE CONSTRUCTION

Template based renaming is used when you want to impose a naming "pattern" on a group of files or directories. This is most useful when the existing filenames have little or nothing in common. In such situations, there's often no direct way to use string substitutions to order the names in some coherent way.

A "template" is built from literal text and renaming tokens. These tokens are delimited by the / character. tren replaces these tokens with corresponding information (see descriptions below) to produce a final "template text". The template text is the actual string used to either replace the existing file or directory name (or just the "name" or "extension" portions, depending on which options you've selected) or to be appended or prepended to the name.

Currently, tren defines a number of renaming tokens.

File Attribute Renaming Tokens

These tokens are derived from information about the file or directory being renamed.

/D/ File or directory creation date

This token is replaced with the date of creation of the file or directory being renamed. It is in YYYMMDD format.

/E/ Original File Extension

This token is replaced the "extension" portion of the file or directory before renaming. This does not include the extension separator string.

/F/ Original File Name

This token is replaced the "name" portion of the file or directory before renaming.

Note

Notice that there is no token for the whole filename because you can always synthesize it with /F/./E/

/G/ File or directory primary group name

This token is replaced with the name of the primary group to which the file belongs.

/I/ File or directory creation date

This token is replaced with the date of creation of the file or directory being renamed. It is similar to /D/ except it is in ISO format, YYYY-MM-YY.

/S/ File or directory size

This token is replaced with a numeric string that indicates the size of the file or directory in bytes.

/T/ File or directory creation time

This token is replaced with the time of creation of the file or directory being renamed. It is in HH:MM:SS format.

/U/ File or directory owner name

This token is replaced with the name of the file or direcotry's owner.

Sequence Renaming Tokens

Sometimes it's useful to rename files or directories based on some property they possess like the date or time of creation, the size of the file, who owns it, and so on. That's the idea behind the /D/, /T/, and /S/ renaming tokens described in the previous section.

An extension of this idea is to order all the files being renamed based on one of these parameters. For instance, instead of actually embedding the date and time of creation in a file or directory name, you might want to order the files from oldest to newest with a naming convention like:

file-1.txt
file-2.txt
file-3.txt

This guarantees uniqueness in the final name and also sees to it that a sorted directory listing will show you the files or directories in the order you care about.

This is the purpose of sequence renaming tokens. They give you various ways to create sequences that can be embedded in the final file or directory name.

General Format Of Sequence Renaming Tokens

Sequence renaming tokens consist of three descriptive components and have the following general format:

/<ordering flag><type><counting pattern>/

  where,
         ordering flag:

               +  ascending
               -  descending

         type:

               D  sequence on file creation date & time
               R  sequence on the command line file order
               S  sequence on file size
               T  sequence on file creation time within a given day

Count Pattern Format

The counting pattern is used to specify two things: The width of the sequence string, and the starting value for the sequence. Examples:

0001    ->   0001, 0002, 0003, ...
0000    ->   0000, 0001, 0002, ...
03      ->   03, 04, 05, ...

You do not have to use a 0 to indicate the sequence width. You can use any padding characters you like. tren only cares about the width of the field and will "consume" your padding characters as the count increases.:

xxx3    ->   xxx3, xxx4, xxx5, ... 9999, xxx3, xxx4, ...
 -+8    ->   -+8, -+9, -10, -11, ... 999, -+8, -+9, ...

You are not restricted to numbers in a counting pattern. Letters may also be used. tren will preserve the case you specify in the template when creating sequences like this:

000a    ->   000a, 000b, 000c, ... zzzz, 000a, ...
---Y    ->   ---Y, ---Z, --AA, ... ZZZZ, ---Y, ---Z, ...

Notice that when a sequence "rolls over", the next value is the initial sequence value you specified.

System Related Renaming Tokens

These tokens are derived from the underlying operating system and runtime environment.

/$ENV/ Environment variable

This token is replaced with the value of the environment variable $ENV. If that variable does not exist, the token is replaced with an empty string.

/\cmd\`/ Arbitrary command execution``

This token is replaced with the text returned by executing the cmd command.

EXAMPLES

Here are some common examples of tren in action - the resulting file name(s) shown to the right as a comment. Study each example carefully. Small subtleties are introduced in various adjacent examples to illustrate diffent features of tren:

Simple rename:

tren.py -r old=New  fold.txt log.old     # fNew.txt log.New

Change file "name":

tren.py -b -r old=New  fold.txt log.old  # fNew.txt log.old

Change file "extension":

tren.py -e -r old=New  fold.txt log.old  # fold.txt log.New

Rename all instances of a given string:

tren.py -g -r bin=Bin binary_bin.binbin  # Binary_Bin.BinBin

Rename, ignoring case:

tren.py -c -r bin=BIN Binary_bIN.txt     # BINary_bIN.txt

Rename multiple strings at once:

tren.py -r log:txt -r New:old New.log    # old.txt

Rename using regular expressions:

tren.py -x -r a+=a  Saaaaaaaally.doc     # Sally.doc

Rename a file containing the = symbol:

tren.py -r a\=b=c\=d  a=b.txt            # c=d.txt

Use template:

tren.py -T /I/ file.1                    # 2010-01-12

Use template to change file "name":

tren.py -b -T /I/ file.1 file.2          # 2010-01-12.1 2010-01-12.2

Use template to change file "extension":

tren.py -e -T /D/ file.1                 # file.20100112

Get help:

tren.py -h

Print out detailed version information:

tren.py -v

OTHER

You must have a reasonably current version of Python installed.

BUGS AND MISFEATURES

None known as of this release.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING

tren is Copyright (c) 2010 TundraWare Inc.

For terms of use, see the tren-license.txt file in the program distribution. If you install tren on a FreeBSD system using the 'ports' mechanism, you will also find this file in /usr/local/share/doc/tren.

AUTHOR

Tim Daneliuk
tren@tundraware.com

DOCUMENT REVISION INFORMATION

$Id: tren.rst,v 1.123 2010/01/19 20:49:31 tundra Exp $

You can find the latest version of this program at:

http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tren