Computer command
ren / rename Developer(s) Various open-source and commercial developers Operating system OpenVOS , RT-11 , OS/8 , RSX-11 , ISIS-II , iRMX 86 , TOPS-20 , Z80-RIO , FLEX , CDOS , OS-9 , FlexOS , PC-MOS , 4690 OS , MPE/iX , THEOS/OASIS , OpenVMS , CP/M , MP/M , TRIPOS , AmigaDOS , DOS , MSX-DOS , SISNE plus , OS/2 , Windows , ReactOS , SymbOS , DexOSPlatform Cross-platform Type Command
In computing , ren
(or rename
) is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells ) such as COMMAND.COM
, cmd.exe
, 4DOS , 4NT and Windows PowerShell . It is used to rename computer files and in some implementations (such as AmigaDOS [ 1] ) also directories . It is analogous to the Unix mv
command. However, unlike mv
, ren
cannot be used to move files, as a new directory for the destination file may not be used. Alternatively, move
may be used if available. On versions of MS-DOS that do not support the move
command (older than 6.00), the user would simply copy the file to a new destination, and then delete the original file. A notable exception to this rule is DOSBox , in which ren
may be used to move a file, since move
is not supported.
Implementations
Description of the RENAME
command of RT-11SJ displayed on a VT100 .
The command is available in the operating systems Digital Research CP/M ,[ 2] MP/M ,[ 3] [ 4] Cromemco CDOS ,[ 5] MetaComCo TRIPOS ,[ 6] DOS , IBM OS/2 ,[ 7] Microsoft Windows ,[ 8] ReactOS ,[ 9] SymbOS , and DexOS.
Multics includes a rename
command to rename a directory entry. It can be contracted to rn
.[ 10]
Stratus OpenVOS ,[ 11] DEC RT-11 ,[ 12] OS/8 ,[ 13] RSX-11 ,[ 14] Intel ISIS-II ,[ 15] iRMX 86 ,[ 16] TOPS-20 ,[ 17] Zilog Z80-RIO ,[ 18] TSC FLEX ,[ 19] Microware OS-9 ,[ 20] DR FlexOS ,[ 21] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS ,[ 22] HP MPE/iX ,[ 23] THEOS/OASIS ,[ 24] and OpenVMS [ 25] also provide the rename
command which in some cases can be contracted to ren
.
The rename
command is supported by Tim Paterson 's SCP 86-DOS .[ 26] On MS-DOS , the command is available in versions 1 and later.[ 27] DR DOS 6.0 also includes an implementation of the ren
and rename
commands.[ 28]
In Windows PowerShell , ren
is a predefined command alias for the Rename-Item
Cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.[ 29]
TSL PC-MOS includes an implementation of rename
.[ 30]
Like the rest of the operating system, it is licensed under the GPL v3 .[ 31]
It is also available in the open source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox .
Example
> ren filename newname
> ren *.htm *.html
Another example. This will rename a default video found in Windows 7 with a new name:
> rename "C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv" "Wildlife2.wmv"
The first parameter may contain a drive and a path, but the second parameter must contain only the new filename.
To remove certain characters of a file name in Microsoft Windows command prompt (XP & Higher) :
> rename "abcd*.txt" "////*.txt"
This will remove abcd from the file name.
Notes:
Same number of /
as the number of initial characters to remove.
Double quotes for both arguments.
It doesn't remove .
from file name
See also
References
^ Rügheimer, Hannes; Spanik, Christian (September 19, 1988). AmigaDOS quick reference . Grand Rapids, Mi : Abacus. ISBN 9781557550491 – via Internet Archive.
^ "Manual" (PDF) . www.cpm.z80.de . Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ Digital Research (July 1981) [1979]. MP/M - Multi-Programming Monitor Control Program - User's Guide (PDF) (4 ed.). Pacific Grove, CA, USA: Digital Research . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-04 .
^ Digital Research (1981-09-25). MP/M-86 Operating System - User's Guide (PDF) (1 ed.). Pacific Grove, CA, USA: Digital Research . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-04 .
^ CDOS USER'S MANUAL
^ "Manual" (PDF) . www.pagetable.com . Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands" . Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-06 .
^ "Microsoft TechNet Rename (ren) article" . 11 September 2009.
^ "reactos/reactos" . GitHub . 3 January 2022.
^ "Multics Commands" . www.multicians.org .
^ "Manual" (PDF) . stratadoc.stratus.com . Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ "RT-11 HELP FILE" . paleoferrosaurus.com . Archived from the original on 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-07-16 .
^ "Concise Command Language" (CCL)."OS/8 Handbook" (PDF) . April 1974. Retrieved 28 November 2017 .
^ John F. Pieper (1987). RSX A Guide for Users (PDF) . Digital Equipment Corporation. ISBN 0-932376-90-8 . Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ ISIS II Users Guide
^ iRMX™86 INTRODUCTION AND OPERATOR'S REFERENCE MANUAL For Release 6
^ "TOPS-20 Command manual" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2018-07-18 .
^ Z80-RIO OPERATING SYSTEM USER'S MANUAL
^ "FLEX 2.0 User's Manual" (PDF) .
^ Paul S. Dayan (1992). The OS-9 Guru - 1 : The Facts . Galactic Industrial Limited. ISBN 0-9519228-0-7 .
^ "FlexOS User's Guide" (PDF) . www.bitsavers.org . 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ "Users guide" (PDF) . archive.org . Retrieved 2020-09-19 .
^ "MPE/iX Command Reference Manual" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-10-21 .
^ THEOS/OASIS User's Handbook
^ OpenVMS User's Manual [permanent dead link ]
^ 86-DOS - Disk Operating System for the 8086 - User's Manual (PDF) . Version 0.3 (Preliminary ed.). Seattle, Washington, USA: Seattle Computer Products, Inc. 1980. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-07-14. Retrieved 2019-07-14 . (59 pages)
^ Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition . Microsoft Press . ISBN 0-7356-1812-7 .
^ DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
^ "Microsoft TechNet PowerShell Rename-Item (ren) article" . 22 October 2009.
^ PC-MOS User Guide
^ Jansen, Roeland (8 February 2018). "pcmos386v501: PC-MOS/386 v5.01 final release including cdrom driver sources" – via GitHub.
Further reading
External links
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