Shell Script – Rename Files One By One

The following shell script is used to rename the files at the current directory. After giving it the executable permission, we can use it like

script <oldName> <newName>

Code snippet:

#! /usr/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
        echo "useage: script <oldName> <newName>"
        exit 1
fi
oldName=$1
newName=$2
var=$(ls)
beforeList=($var) # to array
len=${#beforeList[@]} # array length
afterList=($(ls |sed s/${oldName}/${newName}/g))
#echo ${afterList[@]}

i=0
while [ $i -lt $len ]; do
        echo ${beforeList[$i]}" --> "${afterList[$i]}
        mv ${beforeList[$i]} ${afterList[$i]} 2>/dev/null
        i=$(expr $i + 1)
done

Result:

Desktop --> Desktop
Documents --> Documents
Downloads --> Downloads
file2.sh --> file2.sh
file.sh --> file.sh
Music --> Music
Pictures --> Pictures
Public --> Public
te2.txt --> mmp2.txt
te3.txt --> mmp3.txt
Templammps --> Templammps
te.txt --> mmp.txt
Videos --> Videos