How to recursively rename files/folders to make their names Windows-friendly?

Question

I have a bunch of files on a Ubuntu box, which have various characters in their filenames that Windows doesn't accept (mostly ":" and "*", but possibly others).

What's the simplest way to get these all renamed and moved to a Windows machine? It's OK to replace these characters with something like "[colon]" and "[asterisk]".

Solution 1

Take a look at Glindra rename and detox.

Glindra file utilities can be installed on either Windows or Linux. Examples of cleaning up file names on Windows:

rena *.* -portable
rena *.* -safe

• -safe
  Maps leading dashes (hyphens) to underscores.
  Collapses spaces.
  Maps problematic characters like *?:[]"<>|(){} to underscore.
• -portable
  Performs the same cleanup operations as -safe, and additionally:
  Maps all 8-bit characters from the upper half of the Latin 1 alphabet to reasonable 7-bit fallback characters.
  Maps the single quote characters '`´ to underscore.

Source: Fixing Unix/Linux/POSIX Filenames: Control Characters (such as Newline), Leading Dashes, and Other Problems

Solution 2

Try Recuva.

It is the the only Windows utility I have found which handles non-Windows friendly filenames.

Enable Scan for non-deleted files (for recovery from damaged or reformatted disks) and scan your folder. On restore, enable Restore folder structure. Recuva will effectively "copy" the entire directory to another location while "santitizing" unfriendly filenames.

Solution 3

Without being on Linux and without testing anything, I believe that one could use one-liners like the ones below.

To change one character :

find . -type f -exec rename 's/:/\[colon\]/g' {} +
find . -type f -exec rename 's/\*/\[asterisk\]/g' {} +

And finally to remove all non-alphanumeric characters :

find . -type f -exec rename 's/[^A-Za-z0-9._]//g' {} +

Comments

[cYrus]

You should avoid such names even under Linux (especially *).

[HikeMike]

@cYrus Depends on how you handle files. I imagine it's only an issue with scripting and in shells. I'm on OS X and the only forbidden character is :, which is bad enough. Naming documents after their contents is useful, and if an article name ends with a question, so should the file name.

[RomanSt]

@cYrus and I do, in my software, but some software has been written by people who don't. For example, qmail uses : in almost every filename it creates.

[cYrus]

@Daniel Beck: Sure, but unfortunately having a file system that supports such names it's not enough as you can use programs that mess the whole thing. I don't even use spaces.

[cYrus]

Great! Mine wasn't a solution, just an advice.

[Peltier]

Aren't long filenames likely to be a source of problems as well?

[Abel Cheung]

Characters disallowed on Windows are listed here.

[Steven]

@Peltier Would you prefer the renaming script be run in Windows or Ubuntu?

[Peltier]

@Steven good question! I think Windows would be slightly more useful, as it may happen that someone receives the files on Windows and has to fix them on that platform.

[HikeMike]

That page shows a 404. Google cached copy.

[endolith]

Detox is for making Windows files Unix-friendly, not the other way around.

[Ramhound]

@DennisWilliamson - While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.

[Dennis Williamson]

@Ramhound: This isn't a link-only answer. The answer is the name of two programs that do what the OP wants. The links lead to where to obtain those progtams and a reference to where I found the information.

[Peltier]

@DennisWilliamson : of the links you provided, one doesn't work anymore, the other solves a different problem, and the third one is a rant discussing that other problem.

[Joe Taras]

@Ramhound: But this is an answer of 2011!

[Ramhound]

@DennisWilliamson - The links are dead though. I am talking about the "source" link anyways not the program links.

[Ramhound]

@JoeTaras - What is your point exactly? It still is an answer, and because it only contains links, is kind of pointless 4 years later because of the dead links. Which is exactly the reason link answers are frowned upon.

[Steven]

@DennisWilliamson - It seems like glindra (for Windows) cannot rename characters with invalid filenames. G:\spc>rena.exe -safe -portable *.txt outputs [FATAL-ERROR] Filename syntax error: aa:a.txt

[holroy]

Do note that this needs to be extended with all the other illegal characters of windows, i.e.<>:"/\|?*

[holroy]

Do note the change in syntax when going to Linux, that is rena '*.*' -portable, and if you want it recursive use something like rena '***/*.*' -portable on Linux. And I do believe the rename should be done on Linux, not on Windows.

[Andy]

@holroy can you just post the final version

[Andy]

find: ‘rename’: No such file or directory