For each file listed in namefile whose name contains oldpattern, rename the file, replacing oldpattern with newpattern.

--replace - replace oldpattern with newpattern

--chblanks - replace blanks with newpattern

--noblanks - remove all blanks

--camel - Change each nonblank substring to camel case ie. first letter capitalized, all other letters in lowercase, and remove all blanks.

oldpattern - A substring of the filename to be replaced

newpattern - A substring to replace the oldpattern. If empty, the target is simply deleted from the name. The empty string must be enclosed in single quotes ie. ''

namefile - a file listing filenames in the current working directory to be changed . At least 1 file must be specified. Each name must be on a separate line.

This command is intended to be a workalike for the Linux rename command. bl_rename.py uses the Python os.replace command to rename files.

Given the following files in the current working directory, as listed in namefile:

namefile:
testfile1.text
testfile2.text
testfile3.text
testfile4.text

bl_rename.py --replace text txt namefile

changes the names to

testfile1.txt
testfile2.txt
testfile3.txt
testfile4.txt

bl_rename.py --replace ile '' namefile

changes the names to

testf1.txt
testf2.txt
testf3.txt
testf4.txt

Given

namefile:
blanks in file names is a bad practice
Because you have to escape file names using quotes

bl_rename.py --noblanks namefile

results in

blanksinfilenamesisabadpractice
Becauseyouhavetoescapefilenamesusingquotes

while

bl_rename.py --camel namefile

results in

BlanksInFileNamesIsABadPractice
BecauseYouHaveToEscapeFileNamesUsingQuotes

Dr. Brian Fristensky
Department of Plant Science
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB  Canada R3T 2N2
brian.fristensky@umanitoba.ca
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~frist