Ubuntu - bulk file rename

Question

I have a folder containing a sequence of files whose names bear the form filename-white.png. e.g.

images
  arrow-down-white.png
  arrow-down-right-white.png
  ...
  bullets-white.png
  ...
  ...
  video-white.png

I want to strip out the -white bit so the names are simply filename.png. I have played around, dry run with -n, with the Linux rename command. However, my knowledge of regexes is rather limited so I have been unable to find the right way to do this.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '15 at 02:40

1

If you are in the directory above images, the command is

rename "s/-white.png/.png/" images/*

If your current directory is images, then run rename "s/-white.png/.png/" ./* instead. To do a dry run, just attach a -n like you said:

rename -n "s/-white.png/.png/" images/*

or

rename -n "s/-white.png/.png/" ./*

answered Aug 17 '15 at 02:40

user156213

736
4
12

thanks for the suggestion. I am afraid that gives `Substitution replacement not terminated at (eval 1) line 1` – DroidOS Aug 17 '15 at 02:52
are you sure you copied it correctly, including the last slash after .png? it worked on my machine – user156213 Aug 17 '15 at 02:58
oops! I had missed out that terminating slash. Thank you for your help. – DroidOS Aug 17 '15 at 03:00

Ubuntu - bulk file rename

1 Answers1