Bulk rename tool based on regular expressions to rename multiple files at once.
Renaming multiple files at once:
$ ls # awful names:
b45XDS-01.mp3 QsEW2s-02.mp3 VF7t6L-03.mp3
$ regex-rename '-(\d+).mp3' '\1_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3' --rename
[2022-04-09 09:19:15] DEBUG matching regular expression pattern to files: pattern=-(\d+).mp3 replacement=\1_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3 full_match=False dry_run=False
[2022-04-09 09:19:15] INFO renaming file: from=b45XDS-01.mp3 to=01_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3
[2022-04-09 09:19:15] INFO renaming file: from=QsEW2s-02.mp3 to=02_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3
[2022-04-09 09:19:15] INFO renaming file: from=VF7t6L-03.mp3 to=03_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3
[2022-04-09 09:19:15] INFO files renamed: renamed=3 mismatched=0
$ ls # now we're talking:
01_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3 02_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3 03_NeverGonnaGiveYouUp.mp3
pip3 install regex-rename
It requires Python 3.7 (or newer) with pip.
Imagine you have 51 audio files with hideous names like this and you wish to rename them:
Stanislaw+Lem+Invincible+(01).mp3
->01 The Invincible.mp3
Stanis▯aw+Lem+Invincible+(02 ).mp3
->02 The Invincible.mp3
Stanisław_Lem_Invincible (03) .mp3
->03 The Invincible.mp3
- …
Stanis▯aw+Lem+Invincible+(51).mp3
->51 The Invincible.mp3
Specifically, you want to place the episode number at the beginning.
Regular Expressions can be tricky. We figured out this pattern may match the files and extracts the episode number:
(\d+).*mp3
First, let's check this pattern in a dry run: regex-rename '(\d+).*mp3'
Pay attention to the extracted regex groups.
Now, we'd like to replace all files to a pattern:
\1 The Invincible.mp3
\1
is a first group extracted by the matching pattern (episode number).
Let's test it by adding the replacement pattern: regex-rename '(\d+).*mp3' '\1 The Invincible.mp3'
All above commands were just dry-run so that we could experiment with regex patterns.
Once we're sure that everything is matched correctly, we can append --rename
flag,
which does the actual renaming:
regex-rename '(\d+).*mp3' '\1 The Invincible.mp3' --rename
Finally, files are named properly:
01 The Invincible.mp3
02 The Invincible.mp3
03 The Invincible.mp3
- …
51 The Invincible.mp3
regex-rename
also supports some transformations not covered by regular expressions standard:
- Converting to lowercase by adding
\L
before group number:
regex-rename '([A-Z]+).mp3' '\L\1.mp3'
eg.AUDIO.mp3
toaudio.mp3
- Converting to uppercase by adding
\U
before group number:
regex-rename '([a-z]+).mp3' '\U\1.mp3'
eg.audio.mp3
toAUDIO.mp3
- Padding numbers with leading zeros by adding
\P2
,\P3
, … (depending on padding length) before group number:
regex-rename '(\d+).mp3' '\P2\1.mp3'
eg.1.mp3
to01.mp3
- Padding numbers with leading zeros by specifying
--pad-to
parameter:
regex-rename '(\d+).mp3' '\1.mp3' --pad-to=2
eg.1.mp3
to01.mp3
-
Extract season and episode numbers, eg.
episode-02x05.mkv
toS02E05.mkv
:regex-rename '(\d+)x(\d+)' 'S\1E\2.mkv' --rename
-
Swap artist with title, eg.
Echoes - Pink Floyd.mp3
toPink Floyd - Echoes.mp3
:regex-rename '([^-]+) - ([^-]+)\.mp3' '\2 - \1.mp3' --rename
-
Pad leading zeros, eg.
1.mp3
to001.mp3
:regex-rename '(\d+).mp3' '\P3\1.mp3' --rename
-
Convert to lowercase, eg.
SONG.MP3
tosong.mp3
:regex-rename '(.+)' '\L\1' --rename
-
Convert to uppercase, eg.
Tool.mp3
toTOOL.mp3
:regex-rename '(.+)\.mp3' '\U\1.mp3' --rename
-
Add prefix, eg.
Doors.mp3
toThe Doors.mp3
:regex-rename '(.+)' 'The \1' --full --rename
-
Change extension, eg.
Songbook.apk
toSongbook.zip
:regex-rename '(.+)\.apk' '\1.zip' --rename
-
Turn directories into prefixes and move files, eg.
Pink Floyd/Echoes.mp3
toPink Floyd - Echoes.mp3
:regex-rename '(.+)/(.+).mp3' '\1 - \2.mp3' --full --recursive --rename
-
Rename files in different directories, preserving their parent directories, eg.
app/logs/file-001.log
toapp/logs/file_001.txt
:regex-rename '(.*)/file-([0-9]+).log' '\1/file_\2.txt' --full --recursive --rename
-
Rename files piped from another command like
find
, eg.songs/Jimmi - Voodoo Child.mp3
tosongs/Jimi - Voodoo Child.mp3
:find -iname '*jimmi*' | regex-rename '(.*)/.* - (.*).mp3$' '\1/Jimi - \2.mp3' --rename
Enter regex-rename
for help:
$ regex-rename
regex-rename v1.3.0 - Bulk rename tool based on regular expressions to rename multiple files at once
Usage:
regex-rename [OPTIONS] PATTERN [REPLACEMENT]
Arguments:
PATTERN - Regex pattern to match filenames
[REPLACEMENT] - Replacement regex pattern for renamed files. Use \1, \2 syntax to make use of matched groups
Options:
--version - Print version information and exit
-h, --help [SUBCOMMANDS...] - Display this help and exit
-r, --rename - Does actual renaming files instead of just testing replacement pattern
--full - Enforces matching full filename against pattern
--recursive - Search directories recursively
--collate - Compare source filenames with the replaced names
--short - Print output in short, less verbose format without time
--pad-to PAD_TO - Applies padding with zeros with given length on matched numerical groups