How to rename a certain prefix in multiple files?

Question

I have a folder that contains over 500+ files with a certain prefix. Those files are spread in multiple folders in one directory. My objective is to re-name that prefix in those multiple files.

Sample File Names and Paths:

• MyFiles/my-old-FileOfAlice.txt
• MyFiles/Folder 1/my-old-FileOfTom.odt
• MyFiles/Folder 2/my-old-FileOfJane.doc

The Objective Is To Rename Them To:

• MyFiles/my-new-FileOfAlice.txt
• MyFiles/Folder 1/my-new-FileOfTom.odt
• MyFiles/Folder 2/my-new-FileOfJane.doc

Notes:

• The files do not have the same extension.
• The files are spread in multiple folders under the same directory. I am using Kubuntu 16.10. Any Ubuntu oriented answer will be accepted and appreciated.

Any command line, program, guide, tutorial, or link would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Solution

You can use the following command:

find -name "*-old-*" -exec rename 's/-old-/-new-/' {} \;

This searches for files containing -old- recursively beginning in your current directory and renames them by replacing the -old- with -new-.

Note: replacing old may be enough, but I included the - in case, there is a second old in the name (like my-old-Folders.doc).

Comments

[Jacob Vlijm]

I assume you want to replace old, but how is it embedded, any specific characters like -, or other markers? An example? You wouldn't want to define the replacement too broad.

[Ken]

@JacobVlijm : Yes, there is the dash character " - " before and after the prefix that I want to replace. Exactly in the same order and format shown in the example above. That is: "word-WordToReplace-word.Extention". Thanks!