Recursively change file extensions in Bash

Question

I want to recursively iterate through a directory and change the extension of all files of a certain extension, say .t1 to .t2. What is the bash command for doing this?

imho this is not a duplicate question - the other question is not recursive — shonky linux user, Jun 24 '16 at 04:37
Related: https://askubuntu.com/questions/35922/how-do-i-change-extension-of-multiple-files-recursively-from-the-command-line — Ciro Santilli Путлер Капут 六四事, Oct 29 '20 at 10:45
@AmalAntony : If you don't have `rename`, write a shell script, which renames a single file (trivial to do in your simple case), and then use `find` to apply this script to all files with the offending extension. — user1934428, Nov 23 '20 at 14:20

score 225 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 15 '21 at 13:54

225

Use:

find . -name "*.t1" -exec bash -c 'mv "$1" "${1%.t1}".t2' - '{}' +

If you have rename available then use one of these:

find . -name '*.t1' -exec rename .t1 .t2 {} +

find . -name "*.t1" -exec rename 's/\.t1$/.t2/' '{}' +

edited Feb 15 '21 at 13:54

Slava Fomin II

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answered Feb 24 '14 at 10:47

anubhava

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`find . -name '*.t1' -exec rename .t1 .t2 {} +` – Aaron Blenkush Dec 09 '15 at 00:00
2

(My version of `rename` doesn't allow the sed style substitution expression. Gotta love Linux. I used to have to install TotalCommander for Windows to do stuff like this.) – Aaron Blenkush Dec 09 '15 at 00:03
1

Please use a parameter expansion instead of an ugly `sed`! – gniourf_gniourf Sep 10 '16 at 11:01
1

If you have the extensions in variables, you cannot use single quotes here. `find . -name "*.$ext1" -exec bash -c "mv \"\$1\" \"\$(sed 's/\\.$ext1\$/.$ext2/' <<< \"\$1\")\"" - {} \;` should work instead, though this is much more involved than I would like it to be. – tripleee Sep 11 '16 at 13:58
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In case anyone is wondering what the `"${1%.t1}".t2` part does, like I did: It uses bash string manipulation to do the following: 1/ Take the first positional parameter `$1` and truncate the `.t1` string literal from its end (percentage sign `%` operator). 2/ Append the `.t2` string literal to the result. – Zack Jul 21 '17 at 01:55
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The rename didn't work for me in OSX, but the bash version is awesome b/c I just added 'git' in front of mv and now git is happy :-D – bdombro Sep 21 '18 at 13:37
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prefer to user `find . -type f -name '*.t1'` to avoid folders – Golak Sarangi Jan 15 '19 at 11:44
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works like a charm! Install "rename" by `sudo apt install rename` – Nikhil VJ Mar 11 '20 at 09:46
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Another form would be `mv "$1" "${1/.t1/.t2}"` this uses find and replace, but your filename need to have only one ".t1". – axell-brendow May 28 '20 at 14:33
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@AaronBlenkush In Windows I would use PowerShell for this: `gci -r *.t1 | foreach { $_ -replace ".t1", ".t2" }` these commands will print the filenames renamed. – axell-brendow May 28 '20 at 14:40
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On MacOS it only renames the first matched file – chill appreciator Nov 24 '21 at 13:36
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Delimiter argument should be `;` instead of `+` if renaming all at once is required like this `find . -name "*.t1" -exec bash -c 'mv "$1" "${1%.t1}".t2' - '{}' \;`. Otherwise with the `+` only one file will be renamed at a time. [Ref](https://www.baeldung.com/linux/find-exec-command) – S.aad Jan 20 '22 at 14:09

Paul Oskar Mayer · Answer 2 · 2021-06-07T11:48:21.520

18

None of the above solutions worked for me on a fresh install of debian 14. This should work on any Posix/MacOS

find ./ -depth -name "*.t1" -exec sh -c 'mv "$1" "${1%.t1}.t2"' _ {} \;

All credits to: https://askubuntu.com/questions/35922/how-do-i-change-extension-of-multiple-files-recursively-from-the-command-line

edited Jun 07 '21 at 11:48

answered Jan 29 '21 at 15:11

Paul Oskar Mayer

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score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '14 at 00:57

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If your version of bash supports the globstar option (version 4 or later):

shopt -s globstar
for f in **/*.t1; do
    mv "$f" "${f%.t1}.t2"
done

answered Feb 27 '14 at 00:57

chepner

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jrjc · Answer 4 · 2014-02-24T12:35:46.250

10

I would do this way in bash :

for i in $(ls *.t1); 
do
    mv "$i" "${i%.t1}.t2" 
done

EDIT : my mistake : it's not recursive, here is my way for recursive changing filename :

for i in $(find `pwd` -name "*.t1"); 
do 
    mv "$i" "${i%.t1}.t2"
done

edited Feb 24 '14 at 12:35

answered Feb 24 '14 at 10:58

jrjc

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[Don't parse ls](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs), and see the same page for why your `find` syntax is bad. Also, make sure you [quote your variables](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide/Practices#Quoting) – Reinstate Monica Please Feb 24 '14 at 12:26

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 23 '20 at 01:43

6

Or you can simply install the mmv command and do:

mmv '*.t1' '#1.t2'

Here #1 is the first glob part i.e. the * in *.t1 .

Or in pure bash stuff, a simple way would be:

for f in *.t1; do
    mv "$f" "${f%.t1}.t2"
done

(i.e.: for can list files without the help of an external command such as ls or find)

HTH

edited Nov 23 '20 at 01:43

Dave Yarwood

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answered Feb 24 '14 at 15:18

zmo

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I assume the OP's use of "recursively" refers to renaming files in subdirectories of the directory as well. – chepner Feb 27 '14 at 00:59
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it's the first glob part i.e. the `*` in `*.t1` – zmo Jun 02 '17 at 21:58

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 23 '21 at 08:08

My lazy copy-pasting of one of these solutions didn't work, but I already had fd-find installed, so I used that:

fd --extension t1 --exec mv {} {.}.t2

From fd's manpage, when executing a command (using --exec):

          The following placeholders are substituted by a
          path derived from the current search result:

          {}     path
          {/}    basename
          {//}   parent directory
          {.}    path without file extension
          {/.}   basename without file extension

Recursively change file extensions in Bash

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