renaming files interactively

We often rename files to a slight variation (e.g., we may fix a typo, or change a date to a different format, and so on).

Let’s say we wanted to rename 2023/2023-08-28-incremental-differential-full.mkd to 2023/2023-08-28-incremental-differential-or-full.mkd (we’re adding -or before the -full).

There are several ways to do this in Linux. Using tab completion, you can type mv 2023/<TAB> (where <TAB> indicates hitting the TAB key) and find the right name for the source. Then you can type a space, then again type 2023/<TAB> to get the same name in the target slot of the mv command, then use your arrow keys and delete/backspace to fix up the target.

Or you could use a TUI file manager like vifm (which has enough tricks to power several blog entries!), or use vidir, etc. More on these in future blogs :)

Meanwhile, here’s a neat trick. First, install the rlwrap package (should be available on any Linux distro).

Next, create a file called mvi somewhere in your $PATH, with the following content:

#!/bin/bash

# usage: $0 some-file
# then edit the "some-file" using readline, hit enter

mv -v "$1" "$(rlwrap -P "$1" head -1)"

Now, running mvi some-file-name will show the filename in a text field editable exactly as you would edit the command line. Make whatever changes you want, and when you hit enter, the file gets renamed.

What we’re doing is using rlwrap ability to edit a given text and using that as the target of the mv command.