rename using regexpr - is it possible?

[Eliot Moss]

On 10/24/2021 4:55 PM, Fergus Daly wrote:
>>> I might be wrong but:
>>> The Cygwin implementation of rename seems completely different from "the" (my) Linux version.
>>> (Almost unique? Otherwise the matching in Cygwin of all syntax -
>>> vocab, switches, outcomes - to Linux, seems almost perfect.)
>>> Can I rename a set of files *.d (say) as filename.d -> XXfilename.d?
>>> In Linux this would be achieved by
>>> $ rename 's/^/XX/g' ./*.d
>>> whereas in Cygwin
>>> $ rename ^ XX *.d
>>> (and all similar attempts) fails.
>>> Thank you.
> 
>> You're confusing perl-rename with util-linu rename.
>> The former, which seems to be what you want, can be installed using cpan (install File::Rename),
>> assuming you have perl installed.
>> It will put its rename command in /usr/local/bin, presumably taking precedence over the util-linux one in /usr/bin.
>> It further seems that "normally" these two have different names, like rename.ul and prename,
>> and /etc/alternatives is used to set up the rename command.
>> This required some web searching to determine ...
>> Cheers - Eliot
> 
> Perfect. Worked like a dream.
> All in place, and naming managed.
> Thanks so much.

No problem - learned something myself!  EM