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 , DexOS
Platform
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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