{[m]atch=[r]eplace:[f]ormat}

mrf (pronounced "morph") lets you rename files by pattern matching.

Demo

Rename files

Organize files

Format numbers

Installation

On Linux

You can install mrf with Homebrew:

brew tap kerlilow/tools
brew install mrf

On macOS

You can install mrf with Homebrew:

brew tap kerlilow/tools
brew install mrf

From source

You can install mrf from source using Rust's package manager Cargo:

$ cargo install mrf

From binaries

The release page includes precompiled binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows.

How It Works

Tokenization

The input string is split into tokens. There are 4 types of tokens:

1. Number - A contiguous string of ASCII digits (0-9).
2. Whitespace - A contiguous string of ASCII whitespaces.
3. Punctuation - A contiguous string of ASCII punctuations.
4. Text - A contiguous string of characters that are none of the above.

For example, the string example-001 will be tokenized as [example][-][001].

Matching

Each matcher matches one or more tokens. There are 2 types of matchers:

1. Any - Match any type of tokens, the default matcher. Example: {}.
2. Number - Match a Number token, specified with n. Example: {n}.

Note: A matcher matches the minimum number of tokens required.

For example, the string example-001 with the replacer string {}{n} will be matched as:

[example-][001]
 ^^^^^^^^  ^^^
   Any     Number

Note that the Any matcher matches 2 tokens here.

On the other hand, for the same string, if the replacer string {}{} will be matched as:

[example][-001]
 ^^^^^^^  ^^^^
   Any     Any

Note that this time, the first Any matcher matched the 1 token, while the second Any matcher matched 2 tokens.

Replacing

A replacement string may be specified to replace the matched substring with an equal sign (=) in the specifier. Example: {=replaced}.

Formatting

A format specifier may be specified to format the matched substring (or the replacement, if specified).

The following format specifiers are supported:

1. Padding (aligned to the right) - Specify the desired width. Example: {:3}.
2. Zero padding (aligned to the right) - Specify 0, followed by the desired width. Example: {:03}.

Usage

Rename/move files with mrf mv

mrf mv <item>... <replacer>

Examples

Replace hyphen with underscore

$ mrf mv * '{}{=_}{}'
Moving 1 out of 1 items:
    image-001.jpg -> image_001.jpg

Rename while keeping numbering

$ mrf mv * '{=photo}{}'
Moving 1 out of 1 items:
    image-001.jpg -> photo-001.jpg

Add zero padding

$ mrf mv * '{}{n:03}{}'
Moving 1 out of 1 items:
    image-1.jpg -> image-001.jpg

Execute commands with mrf exec

mrf exec <command> <item>... <replacer>

Examples

Make directory

$ mrf exec -r 'mkdir -p' * '{3}{=}'
Matched 1 out of 1 items:
    image-2020-01-01.jpg -> 2020

Copy files

$ mrf exec cp * '{}{=_}{}'
Matched 1 out of 1 items:
    image-001.jpg -> image_001.jpg

Map strings with mrf map (useful for testing and understanding)

mrf map [FLAGS] <item>... <replacer>

Examples

Replace hyphen with underscore

$ mrf map example-001 '{}{=_}{}'
example-001 -> example_001

Pipe to cp (consider using the "exec" subcommand instead)

$ mrf map * '{}{=-}{}' | xargs -0 -n2 cp

Roadmap

• Nicer error reports
• Match highlighting
• More installation methods
• Exact, prefix, suffix matcher
• Regex matcher

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

See the LICENSE.md file in this repository for more information.