batch-rename-by-function

Batch rename files and folders by providing a JS function.

How to use

npm install -g batch-rename-by-function

Navigate to the folder you want, and create a JS file there, my-renamer.js, like this:

module.exports = filename => filename.replace("Season 1 - ", "Season 01 - ");

And then execute

batch-rename-by-function my-renamer.js

to see all the changes that would be made (without actually renaming anything, hence dry-run), and if that's really what you want, execute

batch-rename-by-function my-renamer.js --no-dry-run

to perform the actual renaming. Note that batch-rename-by-function acts on every file/folder in the current working directory, and runs in dry-run mode (i.e. simulation mode) by default. To actually rename files, the --no-dry-run options must be set (or its alias --force or even -F).

The file my-renamer.js doesn't have to be in the same folder as the renames (just give the relative path for it). Also, batch-rename-by-function will automatically skip your JS file (in this example, my-renamer.js) if it is present in the current directory (instead of trying to rename it as well).

To rename recursively, i.e., rename nested files/folders as well, just use the --recursive option (or its alias, --nested). This way nested files/folders will be navigated too.

The renaming function also receives a second parameter, data, which is an object that can be useful:

module.exports = (filename, data) => {
    // Skip folders
    if (data.isDirectory) return filename;

    // Use data.parentFolder to get the relative path to the parent folder
    
    // Use data.depth to know how deep you are in the recursive calls
    // (recall to use the --recursive option to rename recursively)

    // ...
};

The commands batch-rename-by-function --help and batch-rename-by-function --version are also available:

Usage: batch-rename-by-function path/to/my/renamer/file.js

  Applies the function exported by the given JS file on every file present in
  the current folder, except the given JS file (if present), including folders.

  The renaming function receives two parameters. The first is the name of the
  object (file/directory), and the second is a data object with three fields:
  isDirectory (boolean), depth (int) and parentFolder (string).

Options:
  --help                     Show help                                 [boolean]
  --version                  Show version number                       [boolean]
  --recursive, --nested      Whether to rename nested files
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]
  --no-dry-run, --force, -F  Perform the actual renaming (if omitted, a dry-run
                             will occur instead, i.e., just a simulation of the
                             renamings).              [boolean] [default: false]

Examples:
  batch-rename-by-function myRenamer.js

Why batch-rename-by-function?

A comparison with renamer, a more known module for batch renaming:

• batch-rename-by-function allows you to write arbitrarily complicated javascript to calculate the new names for your files in a very straightforward way, while to do this with renamer you would have to develop a custom plugin.
• You don't have to know JavaScript to use renamer, but you must know it to use batch-rename-by-function.

Acknowledgements

Thanks Rubens Mariuzzo for this great guide on creating CLI utilities in NodeJS.

Contributing

Any contribution is very welcome. Feel free to open an issue about anything: questions, suggestions, feature requests, bugs, improvements, mistakes, whatever. I will be always looking.

Changelog

The changelog is available in CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT (c) Pedro Augusto de Paula Barbosa