How to mass rename files in ruby

Question

I have been trying to work out a file rename program based on ruby, as a programming exercise for myself (I am aware of rename under linux, but I want to learn Ruby, and rename

Answer 1

Slightly modified version:

puts "Enter the file search query"
searchPattern = gets.strip
puts "Enter the target to replace"
target = gets.strip
puts "Enter the new target name"
newTarget = gets.strip
Dir.glob(searchPattern).sort.each do |entry|
  if File.basename(entry, File.extname(entry)).include?(target)
    newEntry = entry.gsub(target, newTarget)
    File.rename( entry, newEntry )
    puts "Rename from " + entry + " to " + newEntry
  end
end

Key differences:

• Use .strip to remove the trailing newline that you get from gets. Otherwise, this newline character will mess up all of your match attempts.
• Use the user-provided search pattern in the glob call instead of globbing for everything and then manually filtering it later.
• Use entry (that is, the complete filename) in the calls to gsub and rename instead of origin. origin is really only useful for the .include? test. Since it's a fragment of a filename, it can't be used with rename. I removed the origin variable entirely to avoid the temptation to misuse it.

For your example folder structure, entering *.jpg, a, and b for the three input prompts (respectively) should rename the files as you are expecting.

Answer 2

I made a small script to rename the entire DBZ serie by seasons and implement this:

count = 1
new_name = "Dragon Ball Z S05E"
format_file = ".mkv"
Dir.glob("dragon ball Z*").each do |old_name|
  File.rename(old_name, new_name + count.to_s + format_file)
  count += 1
end

The result would be: Dragon Ball Z S05E1 Dragon Ball Z S05E2 Dragon Ball Z S05E3

Answer 3

Here's a short version I've used today (without pattern matching)

Save this as rename.rb file and run it inside the command prompt with ruby rename.rb

count = 1
newname = "car"
Dir["/path/to/folder/*"].each do |old|
  File.rename(old, newname + count.to_s)
  count += 1
end

I had /Copy of _MG_2435.JPG converted into car1, car2, ...

Answer 4

Your problem is that gets returns a newline at the end of the string. So, if you type "foo" then searchPattern becomes "foo\n". The simplest fix is:

searchPattern = gets.chomp

---

I might rewrite your code slightly:

$stdout.sync
print "Enter the file search query: "; search  = gets.chomp
print "Enter the target to replace: "; target  = gets.chomp
print "  Enter the new target name: "; replace = gets.chomp
Dir['*'].each do |file|
  # Skip directories
  next unless File.file?(file)
  old_name = File.basename(file,'.*')
  if old_name.include?(search)
    # Are you sure you want gsub here, and not sub?
    # Don't use `old_name` here, it doesn't have the extension
    new_name = File.basename(file).gsub(target,replace)
    File.rename( file, new_path )
    puts "Renamed #{file} to #{new_name}" if $DEBUG
  end
end

Answer 5

I used the accepted answer to fix a bunch of copied files' names.

Dir.glob('./*').sort.each do |entry|
  if File.basename(entry).include?(' copy')
    newEntry = entry.gsub(' copy', '')
    File.rename( entry, newEntry )
  end
end