This will also replace the file with the command's output, which is useful for commands besides mv. This will pipe the whole buffer to the system command bash, thus executing all of the move commands. Sure there are utilities that may do this better, but Vim is always available and that's one less thing you have to remember.Īn alternative method of executing the commands is: So if you started with a list of 100 file names, it will execute 100 mv commands.

The reason this works is Vim writes a file line-by-line. You can use any Vim features here ( macros are useful), as long as each line results in a valid shell command. Note: In case the file name contains space character, it should be surrounded with quotes.

To substitute certain text in the filename: We need to change each line to be a valid stand-alone shell command.įor example, to rename the files to lowercase: In Vim you now have one file name per line. Vim will open, displaying a list of file names. The backslash tells your shell to disregard any aliases for ls we need plain output with no color. Starting at a shell prompt, you can send a list of file names to the standard input of Vim by entering:

Rename bulk files