Barineka/filename-changer

Alter filenames in a directory or file system, in an endless array of possibilities!

Hello 👋 and Welcome!

Project Name And Brief Synopsis

This script shall be called Filename Changer, or fnc for short.

The basic function of this script is to automate the renaming of files in order to give users more flexibility and efficiency when working with files on the command line interface. This is essentially, a utility-packed bash script that makes it easier for users to quickly change filenames on a directory, or even across a file system, to lowercase characters, uppercase characters, mixed characters.

You can even choose to hide your files in plain sight by generating random names for them, and reverting to their original names when you wish! Users will have a variety of options to change filenames ina directory.

A full description of the capabilities of this script will be given under the features section.

It is important to note that this script is specially adapted for Linux/Unix systems and may not (properly) run on Windows or other Operating Systems.

You are welcome to view the Contributing.md file if you wish to contribute to this project. As always, feel free to Email me, or check me out on LinkedIn.

Features

• Change only the first letter in a filename to an uppercase character
• Change filename to uppercase characters
• Change file extension for a file or list of files
• Use globbing to select a range of filenames
• Display manual page
• Display usage history
• Change filenames in the current working directory to lowercase
• Specify absolute path to directory and alter selected files in that directory
• Generate random names for files
• Display version information
• Update to the latest version
• Revert filename to old name

To get an exhaustive description of these features and how to use them, use the help option (fnc -h) to view the man page. Or view it directly in the .manual_page.txt file.

Installation

To be able to use this program, simply clone this repository to your local system. Switch (cd) into the cloned repository (filename-changer) and start the program by running bash fnc.sh on your terminal. When this script is run for the first time on a local machine, it will ask for permission to create an alias in the .bash_aliases file: alias fnc='bash ~/filename-changer/fnc.sh'. This enables the user to run the script from anywhere on the terminal by just typing fnc. If however this permission is denied, the user will have to cd into this directory and directly execute the bash fnc.sh whenever they want to run this script.

On subsequent occasions, if permission had been granted in the first instance, executing fnc will startup the script. If permission is denied, the script will be able to run when bash fnc.sh is executed with an absolute or relative path, or when a custom alias is created by the user.

Note:

• Your system must be capable of running bash in POSIX mode.
• For this installation to work correctly, your current working directory has to be set to $HOME (especially if you wish to grant permission to create an alias as intended).
• If you are executing this script for the first time, use 'bash fnc.sh` without any options if you want to automatically create an alias.
• If you choose to create a custom alias or change the path to the script, be sure to modify the lines of code in the fnc.sh file, to reflect the new directory path.
• The script will exit after the first instance, regardless of whether permission was granted or not. You'll need to restart the program with options.
• The script uses the init.txt file located in the ~/filename-changer directory to determine whether or not it is running for the first time. Tampering with this file may lead to unintended results.

Usage

• If you are running this script for the first time, use bash ~/filename-changer/fnc.sh This is optional.
• Usage of this script might vary slightly depending on whether you created an alias during installation.
  • If an alias was created as intended, then you can simply run this script at anytime by executing fnc on your terminal.
• If you didn't create an alias, then you have to specify the absolute path to the fnc.sh file located within the filename-changer directory.
  • E.g: bash /home/some_dir/another_dir/filename-changer/fnc.sh.
• Also note that this script will only accept one option at a time. If two or more options are used, the script will only interpret the first option.

Syntax: fnc [-OPTION] Use the help option (fnc -h) within the script to view a detailed usage description. Or view directly in the .manual_page.txt file.