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https://github.com/marcusbuffett/pipe-rename

Rename your files using your favorite text editor
https://github.com/marcusbuffett/pipe-rename

command-line-tool devtool rust

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Rename your files using your favorite text editor

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README 

        
# pipe-rename



[![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/pipe-rename)](https://crates.io/crates/pipe-rename)



`pipe-rename` takes a list of files as input, opens your `$EDITOR` of choice, then

renames those files accordingly.



![](renamer.gif)



## Installation



`cargo install pipe-rename`



This will install the `renamer` binary.



## Usage



Usage is simple, just pipe a list of files into `renamer`. This will open your

`$EDITOR` (or vim, if not set or passed with `--editor`) -- or `%EDITOR%` (or Notepad

on Windows, if not set or passed with `--editor`), and once your editor exits it

will detect which files were renamed:



```bash

ls | renamer

```



You can also supply filenames as positional arguments. To rename `.txt` files

in the current directory:



```bash

renamer *.txt

```



The default behavior is to rename files, but you can override this. If you want

to run `git mv old new` on each rename, you can do something like this:



```bash

ls | renamer --rename-command "git mv"

```



## Help text



```

Takes a list of files and renames/moves them by piping them through an external editor



USAGE:

    renamer [OPTIONS] [FILES]...



ARGS:

    ...



OPTIONS:

    -c, --rename-command 

            Optionally set a custom rename command, like 'git mv'



    -e, --editor 

            Optionally set an editor, overriding EDITOR environment variable and default



    -f, --force

            Overwrite existing files



    -h, --help

            Print help information



    -n, --filenames-only

            Only rename filenames



    -p, --pretty-diff

            Prettify diffs



    -u, --undo

            Undo the previous renaming operation



    -V, --version

            Print version information



    -y, --yes

            Answer all prompts with yes

```



### Caveat emptor



**NB:** it makes sense to be aware of the issues `ls` can cause in this

context, depending on the `ls` flavor (or substitute, such as `lsd`, `exa`

...) used. Please read [this document](https://web.archive.org/web/20230102124738/http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs)

for more information.



While your shell will pass the file names individually, no matter if they

contain whitespace, an `ls` that fails to detect the pipe and print one file

name per line will cause issues. Unfortunately `ls -Q` also isn't a solution

here, because unlike the shell -- which will strip quotes prior to passing

them to invoked commands -- `renamer` won't handle the quoted names and will

probably complain about non-existent files, too.



### Advanced usage



If you have tools like GNU `find` at your disposal, you can also use the

following method:



```bash

find -type f -exec renamer {} +

```



This would execute `renamer` with all of the files matched by `find`. You can

use additional `find` predicates such as `-name` or `-ipath` to limit which

files to rename. There is, however, one caveat: on large lists of files you

may encounter multiple invocations of `renamer` -- and thus your editor -- due

to how `find ... -exec {} +` works. It will pass as many file names on the

command line as it can fit but it is limited by `ARG_MAX` (see `getconf ARG_MAX`

output for how long the overall command line length can be on your system).



Other `find` flavors would allow the following, but it would invoke `renamer`

-- and thus your editor -- *once for every single found file*:



```bash

find -type f -exec renamer {} \;

```



In order to sidestep this issue, you can employ `xargs` in conjunction with

`find` like so (`-print` is implied for `find`):



```

find -type f | xargs renamer --editor vim

```



The part past `xargs` is the invocation of `renamer` without the file names.

It exists just to demonstrate how you would pass arguments to `renamer` using

this method.



If your files contain wonky characters you could also try:



```

find -type f -print0 | xargs -0 renamer --editor vim

```



Alas, this could be asking for trouble. If your file names contain line breaks,

for example, this could confuse `renamer` which expects a single file name per

line when re-reading the edited file.



### Known workarounds



`renamer` will wait for the editor to close, before offering to rename the files according

to your changes. Some editors cause issues with this method, because they spawn child

processes or similar. This is a list of known workarounds for some editors. Feel free to

contribute by sending a pull request or opening an issue and giving the details.



We can work around these issues by explicitly using a method to invoke the desired editor,

which works with the assumptions made by `renamer`. It can be done by passing `--editor`

(short `-e`) or setting the environment `$EDITOR` (`%EDITOR%` with `cmd.exe` or

`$env:EDITOR` with `pwsh.exe`).



* Sublime Text can be used by passing `--editor "subl -w"` to have it wait until the files

  are closed



#### Windows-specific workarounds



* VS Code can be used by passing `--editor "code.cmd -"` and then giving the other files

* VSCodium analogously can be used with `--editor "codium.cmd -"`



## Contributors ✨



  

    
Marcus Buffett
🤔 💻

    
Robin Krahl
🤔 💻 🐛

    
Max Timkovich
🤔 💻

    
Benoit de Chezelles
🤔

    
Oliver Schneider
🤔 💻

  



This project follows the [all-contributors](https://github.com/all-contributors/all-contributors) specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!