How to batch rename files (.jpg) randomly?

Question

Ok, so I have a digital photo frame that I have, and view my photos from a USB. Everything works fine, however, there is no way to display the pictures randomly. So, I have to watch my pictures in order, which is fine but not really what I want.

I am wondering if there is a way to have my .jpg pictures, that I view to be batch renamed, but renamed randomly? Be it adding random characters to the start of the name or replacing the characters before .jpg

Thank you for your time and answers.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited May 13 '13 at 06:56

11

I suppose the following could work. Assuming the prefix of your filenames is "DSC" you can use the following command in the terminal (untested!)

cd /path/to/photos
rename 's/DSC/'$RANDOM'/' *.jpg

This uses the perl rename command to match regular expressions and replace them. In this case, we are substituting "DSC" with a random number in the filename for all .jpg files. Change the "DSC" to whatever your photos' prefix is.

another method (also untested) is with a bash script:

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.jpg; do
  mv "$f" $RANDOM-"$f"
done

edited May 13 '13 at 06:56

chronitis

12,367

answered May 13 '13 at 04:57

amc

7,142

Great thanks I will try this tonight after work. – Dustin May 13 '13 at 14:20
I renamed all the files from file-2.jpg to file.jpg, really helpful, – umesh Aug 21 '16 at 00:39
Worked perfectly! – Davidson Lima Jun 01 '21 at 22:03

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 09 '19 at 08:22

2

#!/bin/bash    
for img in *.jpg; do
newname=$(head /dev/urandom | tr -dc a-z0-9 | head -c 8)
mv "$img" "$newname".jpg
done

This will shuffle all jpg files to random names.

edited Dec 09 '19 at 08:22

damadam

2,833

answered Dec 07 '19 at 02:01

Mach Seven

21

Done. This will shuffle all jpg files to random names. The echo was what I've used to validate the script, it is now removed. – Mach Seven Dec 09 '19 at 00:58

Grzegorz Żur · Answer 3 · 2013-05-13T07:18:47.963

1

Following one line script works for file names with white chars.

for f in *.jpg; do mv -n "$f" "${f/*/$RANDOM.jpg}"; done

edited May 13 '13 at 07:18

answered May 13 '13 at 07:11

Grzegorz Żur

861

1

This is possibly dangerous and may cause loss of pictures. – Lekensteyn May 13 '13 at 07:16
Indeed, previous version of script could overwrite existing file. – Grzegorz Żur May 13 '13 at 07:19
The risk of collision is high. $RANDOM is between 0 and 32767. I would not recommend using this function. Or at least replace $RANDOM by $(head /dev/urandom | tr -dc a-z0-9 | head -c 8 ) – Philippe Remy Jul 02 '22 at 12:42

How to batch rename files (.jpg) randomly?

3 Answers3