Bug 371383 - Add Bulk rename functionality
Summary: Add Bulk rename functionality
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Alias: None
Product: frameworks-kio
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: unspecified
Platform: Other Linux
: HI wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KIO Bugs
URL:
Keywords: usability
: 377647 401523 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-10-20 20:17 UTC by hotmusicfan
Modified: 2025-09-17 13:17 UTC (History)
12 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
multi rename from double commander (106.45 KB, image/jpeg)
2017-03-16 07:53 UTC, Alex
Details

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Description hotmusicfan 2016-10-20 20:17:02 UTC
Hello!

I think the "bulk rename" feature (as in XFCE's Thunar) is very useful one, especially for large number of files which should be organised and named against some user criteria.

Reproducible: Always
Comment 1 Christoph Feck 2016-10-20 21:41:27 UTC
Could you please clarify how the feature should work (for those who never used Thunar)? There is also KRename, but it is not integrated into Dolphin.
Comment 2 hotmusicfan 2016-10-21 15:25:48 UTC
(In reply to Christoph Feck from comment #1)
> Could you please clarify how the feature should work (for those who never
> used Thunar)? There is also KRename, but it is not integrated into Dolphin.

Basically it works with user-set "format" for renaming, e.g. replacing the old file names with new ones , or adding numbering in file names. Detailed explanation here:
http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/bulk-renamer/start
Or similar concept here:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/06/nautilus-batch-rename-feature-coming-gnome-3-22
Comment 3 Christoph Feck 2017-03-15 16:21:55 UTC
*** Bug 377647 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Alex 2017-03-16 07:53:31 UTC
Created attachment 104593 [details]
multi rename from double commander
Comment 5 Alex 2017-03-16 08:00:14 UTC
[N] and [E] are two tags, for name and extension, so current ones can be passed to new name so from bar.ext expression foo[N]new[E] will give foobarnew.ext
Double Commander adds also letter case change option (under "No change" button).
Comment 6 Raghavendra kamath 2017-12-03 15:39:19 UTC
+1 for this feature

In addition to regex and other options there should also be an option to append or prepend characters to exisiting filenames.

thank you.
Comment 7 Christoph Feck 2018-02-20 22:38:25 UTC
There are more items that are only available via the context menu, e.g. "Open With...".

If users are not able to open a context menu, maybe because their input devices does not support a second button, we should fix it on a higher level. Several applications use context menus extensively.
Comment 8 Christoph Feck 2018-02-20 22:38:57 UTC
Ouch, wrong ticket, please ignore comment #7.
Comment 9 Nate Graham 2018-03-15 03:02:07 UTC
There's a patch for this!

https://phabricator.kde.org/D10698
Comment 10 Christoph Feck 2018-11-29 13:50:41 UTC
*** Bug 401523 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Lee 2020-09-03 16:30:33 UTC
+1 for something like Thunar's bulk rename. It's the best out there, and I've tried them all. Both powerful and intuitive and simple to use- a perfect fit for Plasma.

If anyone wants to try it with plasma, you can add it to the right-click menu following the instructions here:

https://cipricuslinux.blogspot.com/2016/10/kde-add-bulk-rename-in-dolphin.html

Note you will have to create the kservices5 directory if it doesn't exist.

Example usage- say I have a folder with a bunch of mp3s. There are a few problems with the naming-

They all contain the (same) album name before the track title- I just want track title.
They're all names in upper case - I want lower case with the correct capitalization where appropriate.

-Select all the tracks in Dolphin, right click, select 'Bulk rename' from the menu.
-Thunar displays a window showing all the selected files, their current name and name as it will appear after the selected option is applied.
-I select 'remove characters' from the dropdown menu, then specify to remove characters 0-10 (the album name) from the left of the names and hit 'rename files'.
-I select 'Uppercase/Lowercase' from the dropdown and select 'Title Case' and hit 'rename files'.
-If I want to add numbering to the track names, I select 'Numbering,' choose my preferred options and click 'rename files.'

I think this is something that would be great to have built into Dolphin, and maybe even improved a bit. It adds a lot of flexibility and power.
Comment 12 shok 2024-07-18 14:21:55 UTC
+1 for adding this to dolphin

It is the best bulk renamig tool out there. 
I find it a bit excessive to have to install another file manager for such a small functionality.

But since it has a very big impact, I sincerely ask the KDE developers to add this.
It looks like there was an attempt before, but it looks orphaned: https://store.kde.org/p/1522350
Comment 13 David Edmundson 2025-05-08 21:52:12 UTC
If krename is installed, you can select some files in Dolphin then right click -> actions -> bulk rename with krename. 

It has every feature requested above and more.
Comment 14 Méven 2025-06-16 07:21:39 UTC
Git commit 1886601aea5bd663fa8fd1b4901eb8b39c389eca by Méven Car.
Committed on 16/06/2025 at 07:06.
Pushed by meven into branch 'master'.

RenameFileDialog: allow to rename by replacing text

And display preview.

M  +4    -4    autotests/knewfilemenutest.cpp
M  +480  -91   src/widgets/renamefiledialog.cpp
M  +2    -1    src/widgets/renamefiledialog.h

https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/commit/1886601aea5bd663fa8fd1b4901eb8b39c389eca
Comment 15 Cavalier0491 2025-09-17 12:46:25 UTC
Hello,
thanks for adding this feature to dolphin!
However, it's still not possible to use regular expressions when bulk-renaming with the "replace text" option in dolphin.
Can you please implement it, e.g. by adding a "Regular Expression" checkbox, like thunar has?
Thanks!
Comment 16 David Edmundson 2025-09-17 12:52:20 UTC
There is a utility called krename that suits more advanced rename activity.
Comment 17 Cavalier0491 2025-09-17 13:17:40 UTC
(In reply to David Edmundson from comment #16)
> There is a utility called krename that suits more advanced rename activity.

I know of Krename, and I have been trying to use it. However, it's very sophisticated, (to me) unintuitive, and (as far as i know), whever i want to rename folders, it always imports the subfolders for renaming as well, even though i only selected the top-level ones.

I am not asking for the full feature set of Krename, but simple regex replace when renaming in dolphin (even if it would require me to do 2-3 passes) would be a big improvement over having to fight with Krename every time.