Mass renaming in zsh

Renaming multiple files in one commandline may be challenging… until you discover that zsh comes with a built-in feature called zmv which is unfortunately disabled by default. So the first thing you want to do is to activate it by simply adding this line to your .zshrc:

autoload zmv

Then reload zsh and you’re done.

When you add a feature you usually expect to have to deal with a bunch of configuration as well. Good news here: there’s no additional config necessary !

The basic structure of a zmv call is zmv 'input_pattern' 'output_pattern'. The patterns are included in single quotes and you would have to use brackets to respect the standard Z Shell syntax to match the enclosed patterns but you can make your life easier by removing the use of quotes by adding the tag -W to the zmv command, and removing the use of brackets by prepanding your command with noglob. Hence, let’s take the example of the files:

photo1-onJan01.jpg
photo2-onJan01.jpg
photo3-onJan01.jpg

Using:

noglob zmv -W photo*Jan*.jpg myphoto*Dec*.jpg

Will rename all the files like that:

myphoto1-onDec01.jpg
myphoto2-onDec01.jpg
myphoto3-onDec01.jpg

Imagine combining your new super power with other tools like fd and you can see how efficient you can be at mass renaming files in a single commandline ! Of course, to save you time, create an alias (rn for example) for your new noglob zmv -W command.