Renaming files is a common task that users often need to perform, whether for organizing files, batch processing, or simply correcting file names. On macOS, this can be efficiently done using Terminal commands, which provide powerful and flexible ways to handle file operations. This article will guide you through the process of renaming files using Terminal, highlighting its importance for advanced users and system administrators who seek automation and efficiency.

Examples:

1. Renaming a Single File: To rename a single file, you can use the mv (move) command in the Terminal. The basic syntax is:

   mv old_filename.txt new_filename.txt

   Example:

   mv document.txt renamed_document.txt

   This command will rename document.txt to renamed_document.txt.

2. Batch Renaming Files: For batch renaming, you can use a loop in a shell script. Here’s an example that renames all .txt files in a directory by adding a prefix "new_":

   for file in *.txt; do
    mv "$file" "new_$file"
   done

   This script loops through all .txt files and renames them by adding "new_" to the beginning of each file name.

3. Using rename Command: The rename command is not available by default on macOS, but you can install it via Homebrew:

   brew install rename

   Once installed, you can use it to rename files with more complex patterns. For example, to replace spaces with underscores in all .txt files:

   rename 's/ /_/g' *.txt

   This command will replace all spaces in the filenames with underscores.

4. Renaming Files with find and mv: To rename files in subdirectories, you can combine find with mv. For example, to rename all .jpg files in the current directory and its subdirectories by adding a suffix "_backup":

   find . -type f -name "*.jpg" -exec sh -c 'mv "$0" "${0%.jpg}_backup.jpg"' {} \;

   This command finds all .jpg files and renames them by appending "_backup" to their names.