[SOLVED]: Batch file renaming programs

[Member scruffyeagle]

One of my favorite hobbies is photography, and I’m kind of a “shutterbug”. After a “photo walk”, it’s common for me to end up with as many as 20 or 30 new pix in the camera. Cameras always use their proprietary naming format, the formats differ from camera to camera, and I always end up renaming all the pix to fit my own needs. So, a good batch renaming program for filenames is a HUGE time-saver for me. The program I’ve always relied on in the past, is pyRenamer.

The operating system I’m using right now is AntiX v21.4. I’m using the zzz-fm desktop.

Checking for batch renaming programs in Synaptic, I found only 2 available: Krename, & gprename. I’d never worked with either, so I installed both, for testing.

I found Krename very difficult to work with, and it seemed to lack features I rely on, such as inserting characters at position x, deleting characters between x & y, etc. I gave up on it fairly quickly.

gprename worked fairly well, but it’s really just a knock-off of pyRenamer. And, it’s missing vital features available in pyRenamer, for example the ability to manually edit just one selected filename.

There was an extra problem with gprename, in that its installation was incomplete. The program worked okay, but I have to access it via the “Run” command on the Main Menu. There was no launcher installed into the menu (that I could find), and there was no icon in /usr/share/applications.

Here’s a link to an article I found for pyRenamer:
PyRenamer Best Software

The article says “pyRenamer is available on repository, so you can install pyRenamer from Terminal by executing these linux command:” – BUT, it doesn’t tell the reader WHICH repository is being referred to. Given that it’s not found in Synaptic, it ain’t the Antix repo. Ubuntu is mentioned elsewhere on the page, so I suspect that it was one of the Ubuntu repos.

The article also gives instructions for installing manually, and provides a link to a github page. Clicking on that link returned “page not found” for me.

I can limp along using gprename via the “Run” command, but really, it’s 2nd-rate knock-off of pyRenamer. I found a 2nd page, where it says pyRenamer was discontinued. Is it possible that someone else tried to keep that excellent program available by generating gprename as a fork?

Is there any way to get pyRenamer into the AntiX v21.4 repo?
Thanks in advance.

• This topic was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Brian Masinick. Reason: [SOLVED]

[Member andyprough]

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If you have simple batch renaming tasks then you can use the Thunar file manager (sudo apt install thunar). Select a group of files you would like to rename, right click, and select “Rename”. You’ll get a dialog box that allows you to overwrite the name or the suffix of the files, to add or overwrite characters starting from the right or the left of the file name, and to either insert new characters or overwrite the existing characters. You get a preview of what the new file names will look like. You have options like adding a date to the name, numbering in sequence, removing characters, and searching for and replacing characters. As I said, it’s simple but effective if your needs aren’t terribly complex it will probably do the job nicely for you.

Instructions are here: https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/4.16/bulk-renamer/start

Of course there are much more powerful tools on the command line too, such as awk.

[Member scruffyeagle]

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andyprough wrote:

If you have simple batch renaming tasks then you can use the Thunar file manager (sudo apt install thunar). Select a group of files you would like to rename, right click, and select “Rename”. You’ll get a dialog box that allows you to overwrite the name or the suffix of the files, to add or overwrite characters starting from the right or the left of the file name, and to either insert new characters or overwrite the existing characters. You get a preview of what the new file names will look like. You have options like adding a date to the name, numbering in sequence, removing characters, and searching for and replacing characters. As I said, it’s simple but effective if your needs aren’t terribly complex it will probably do the job nicely for you.

Instructions are here: https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/4.16/bulk-renamer/start

Of course there are much more powerful tools on the command line too, such as awk.

Thanks for the reply. I’d seen this utility mentioned on one of the pages I researched, and wondered if it might not be useful for me. But, no joy.

Trying to install via Terminal returned:

Package thunar is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package ‘thunar’ has no installation candidate
—————–

Searching via Synaptic found only “thunar-font-manager”.

[Member andyprough]

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scruffyeagle wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I’d seen this utility mentioned on one of the pages I researched, and wondered if it might not be useful for me. But, no joy.

Trying to install via Terminal returned:

Package thunar is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package ‘thunar’ has no installation candidate
—————–

Searching via Synaptic found only “thunar-font-manager”.

Are you sure you are using antiX? thunar is definitely available on the version I’m running. Sounds to me like there’s some repository missing on your system or that you are on some other distro altogether.

[Member oops]

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Hello,
FI:
I use XnViewMP for that (bash rename by hand, or from Exif, IPTC, XMP, GPS, … metadata). It s very powerfull.
The .deb or the appimage.
https://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=42885

bash rename examples:
{EXIF:Date Taken [Y-m-d_H-M-S]}_{Filename}
{Modified Date [Y-m-d_H-M-S]}_{Filename}
… and much more …

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by oops.

[Member iznit]

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sudo apt install fotoxx

is an image editing program with lots of features including yes batch rename

[Member scruffyeagle]

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Yes, it’s definitely AntiX.
Although, I can’t be sure that I’m not missing a repo…

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   control-centre-screenshot.jpg
   

[Member scruffyeagle]

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Xnview isn’t showing up, in Synaptic.

[Member scruffyeagle]

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I couldn’t download fotoxx. Apt couldn’t find it, and neither could Synaptic.

[Member scruffyeagle]

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I’m suspecting that I have a repo problem in my Antix v21.4 installation.

Here’s a screenshot of the repos list from Synaptic:

Attachments:

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   Synaptic-repos-list-screenshot.jpg
   

[Member oops]

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For XnView (amd64) MP 0.99.7 , download the .deb and:

sudo gdebi XnViewMP-linux-x64.deb

The latest for x86:
[ ] XnViewMP-089-linux.deb 2018-01-16 16:42 56M

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by oops.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by oops.

[Moderator caprea]

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repos are OK.
Did you reload the sources in synaptic
or
sudo apt update

[Member scruffyeagle]

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gdebi : command not found

[Member scruffyeagle]

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Yes, I reloaded the repos in Synaptic, and apt update agreed with its findings.
2 programs updated.

[Member oops]

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#or
sudo apt install XnViewMP-linux-x64.deb

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