Rename files in subdirectories

Question

I want to rename some files "folder.jpg" to "cover.jpg". The files itself are located two levels below of the current directory. A simple call

mv */*/folder.jpg */*/cover.jpg

does not work.

So...how can this be done automatically for all subdirectories?

Thanks!

Solution

You can use find for this:

find ./your-top-dir/ -iname 'folder.jpg' -execdir mv -i '{}' cover.jpg \;

Comments

[Schwesi]

Did you try it recursively? Like mv -R */*/folder.jpg */*/cover.jpg?

[ganesh]

or look at stackoverflow.com/questions/4793892/…

[Elmi]

@Schwesi both -R and -r are invalid options for mv :-)

[Elmi]

This deleted all my files folder.jpg :-(

[A. Loiseau]

Damn! So sorry! I forgotten -execdir for the command to take place in the folder itself hence all mv commands gets executed on the calling folder which resulted in moving all to the same ./cover.jpg file in a loop.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

That would work if there was only one file — but the question clearly says that there are multiple files, in multiple directories (e.g., dir1a/dir2a, dir1a/dir2b, dir1b/dir2a, dir1b/dir2b, etc.) … … P.S. Your answer isn’t even internally consistent; you say you’re calling the second directory “directory2”, but your command says dir2.

[Python Jim]

to revise my answer, to move multiple files with a common part of their name such as the extension use the following

[Python Jim]

to revise my answer, to move multiple files with a common part of their name such as the extension, use the following:

[Python Jim]

to revise my answer, to move multiple files with a common part of their name such as an extension, use mv *.x ./dir1/dir2/ where x is the common extension.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

(1) If you want to revise your answer, edit it. (2) You’re still not getting it.  There isn’t a “common part of their name such as the extension”; all the source files have exactly the same name: folder.jpg.  And there isn’t one target directory; there are multiple directories that contain files (one relevant file per directory), and the files are to be renamed (but not moved into a different directory).  You are not answering the question.