ren is a bulk file renaming tool.
Renaming files in ren is a 4 step process:
- Open the source directory.
- Select one or more files to rename.
- Apply one or more renaming transformations to the selection.
- Commit the changes made.
To open a directory, start by pressing O, navigate to the desired location in the dialog box that appears, and click OK. The left column should now be populated with the directory contents.
At any point, the left column shows the current selection.
To filter the entries shown in the left column, press /.
A cursor should appear in the lower-left text box.
Type a key here and press Enter.
The new selection should only contain filenames from the previous selection in which key appears as a substring.
To undo the last filter operation and restore the previous selection, press \.
The following table shows the transformation commands supported by ren.
For commands that take a key, the key selects a substring within the source filename.
| Command | Requires key |
Requires arg |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | Yes | Yes | Insert arg to the left of the selection |
| a | Yes | Yes | Insert arg to the right of the selection |
| I | No | Yes | Prefix filename with arg |
| A | No | Yes | Insert arg as a filename suffix |
| c | Yes | Yes | Replace the selection with arg |
| u | No | No | Undo last transformation |
For commands that take an arg, invoking the command sets the focus on the lower-right text box.
Type an arg here and press Enter to proceed.
To specify a key without triggering a filter, press /, type the new key, and hit Escape instead of Enter.
To cancel an unintentionally invoked transformation, press Escape while the focus is set on the lower-right text box.
Hit M to commit the changes made to the current selection to disk.