Emacs: Rename Files Interactively by Pattern (regex; wdired)

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, 2007-08, …, 2011-03-21

Suppose you need to rename a bunch of files by a string pattern, for all files in a directory. However, you do not want to rename all of them. You need to look at it in a case-by-case basis. What can you do?

Answer: emacs.

Summary

When in dired, call wdired-change-to-wdired-mode. Then, just edit the file names. When done, type【Ctrl+c Ctrl+c】 to commit the changes. 【Ctrl+c Esc】 to cancel the rename.

While you activated wdired, you can edit the file names by using any of emacs's Find & Replace commands. (e.g. query-replace.)

Detail: Rename by Editing File Names

KeyCommand NamePurpose
Ctrl+x Ctrl+q】 (emacs 23.1)wdired-change-to-wdired-modeStart rename by editing
Ctrl+c Ctrl+cwdired-finish-editCommit changes
Ctrl+c Escwdired-abort-changesAbort changes

This feature is also listed under the menu 〖Immediate▸Edit File Names〗. This menu is available only when you are in dired.

Rename by Regex

While in wdired, you can edit the list of file names by emacs's find & replace commands. For example, call query-replaceAlt+%】 or call query-replace-regexpCtrl+Alt+%】. (See: Find & Replace with Emacs.)

Warning: Emacs 22 Bug: Renaming to Existing File Name

There is a bug in emacs 22. (bug#394) If you rename 2 files by exchanging their names, one of the file will get deleted. For example, first file is named A and second is named B, and you rename them so that first is B and second is A. When you do commit, emacs will promp you that A already exsit and if you want to overwrite it. If you answer yes, then file A's content will be gone, and there will NOT be a file named A to be renamed B. In short, you lose a file. This is fixed in emacs 23, but i would be still careful if you rename many files that have existing names.

When renaming files to existing names, best to rename them to something else (such as adding a “x” in front), commit, and rename again.

dired-do-rename-regexp

A older method to rename files in batch is by the command dired-do-rename-regexp% R】.

Note: emacs's regex is not based on Perl's regex engine. For a summary and common patterns, see: Emacs Regex.

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