Hello there,
I was wondering if there was any work in progress for implementing bulk rename functionality.
It would be nice to have it.
Kind regards, and Keep up the good work
kp2401075
All 10 comments
I believe this has been discussed in the past but elementary philosophy would argue against adding features that are already provided by other apps - i.e. we do not want to spend time and effort re-inventing the wheel. The correct approach would be to provide a contractor file that invokes a specialist app. See similar discussion on issue #1030
jeremypw
on 9 Sep 2019
Eh, bulk rename is pretty common in file managers, it's just a natural extension of the rename functionality, but still working when you have multiple files selected. I.e. highlight a bunch of images, hit F2 or right-click → Rename, then type "foo" and they get named "foo-1.ext", "foo-2.ext", etc.
So I could see it being included by default instead of passing that off to a separate utility.
cassidyjames
on 9 Sep 2019
I don't dispute bulk rename ought to be doable from the file manager, just whether we need to write and maintain new code to do it.
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
That said, were someone to submit a suitable PR I would not oppose. The question is - should Files provide "best of class" renaming facilities or something more basic?
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
Maybe Regex bulk rename if an "Advanced Feature" checkbox is active, otherwise basic bulk rename as Cassidy mentioned?
lainsce
on 10 Sep 2019
I notice that there is already a 3rd party bulk renamer for Files: https://github.com/VartanBelavejian/ElementaryBulkRenamer
It is not in the AppCenter though. I haven't tried it yet.
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
The only renamer in the AppCenter is a KDE app (Krename) which is not ideal :-( There are over 100 renamer apps on GitHub though.
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
Vartan Belavejian's renamer seems a decent basic renamer although the codebase needs updating to current elementaryos code standards. It works well as a contractor although I suppose the code could be imported into Files. The developer has not been active on Github for a couple of years and has not left an email address though.
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
The advantage of installing as a contractor is that bulk rename becomes available in other elementary apps - not just Files - e.g. Photos.
jeremypw
on 10 Sep 2019
I have created a bulk renamer contractor here https://github.com/jeremypw/bulk-renamer and submitted it for possible inclusion in the AppCenter. It is the initial release so may not have all functionality desired.
jeremypw
on 24 Nov 2019
Related issues
CodingSpiderFox
·
5Comments
a-tokarev
·
4Comments
Gabriel-p
·
6Comments
tintou
·
6Comments
jnnkB
·
4Comments
Most helpful comment
Eh, bulk rename is pretty common in file managers, it's just a natural extension of the rename functionality, but still working when you have multiple files selected. I.e. highlight a bunch of images, hit F2 or right-click → Rename, then type "foo" and they get named "foo-1.ext", "foo-2.ext", etc.
So I could see it being included by default instead of passing that off to a separate utility.