Debian Package of the Day (static archived copy)

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GPRename is a complete batch renamer for files and directories coded in GTK2 and Perl.

GPRename has been around since 2001, is quite stable and still very much alive today. At the start of 2007, it was ported from the deprecated GTK-Perl to the new GTK2-Perl and in mid 2007 the new 2.4 release is now GPL-3. The package was recently added to the Debian repositories (currently available in ‘testing’ and ‘unstable’) and can be used in many languages.

The program is lightweight and easy to use, yet supports a very complete set of features. In this respect it is comparable to renamers of more fame such as Konqueror’s KRename (KDE) or Thunar’s Bulk Rename (XFCE). GNOME does not have an official renamer but GPRename can easily fill that void. With a simple ‘action’ it can be integrated into Nautilus, the GNOME’s file manager (the prefab action is available). With the action installed any directory in Nautilus can directly be opened in GPRename through the right-click context menu.

Even relatively inexperienced Linux users will have little trouble with the graphical interface, which in many ways resembles that of Nautilus and other file managers. The left panel shows a directory-tree for the usual point-and-shoot navigation. In the panel next to it files or directories (separate tabs) that are to be renamed can be selected. A preview of the modified names is also shown here, either after clicking the ‘preview’ button or automatically. Other useful automated options include:

• Convert double spaces to single spaces.
• Trim leading and/or trailing spaces.
• Add leading zeros to numbers.

The bottom panel has four tabs, one for every basic rename function. The screenshots are quite self-explanatory:

Case change (UPPER, First Letter, lower)

Insert or delete text at a given position

Replace text (options: ‘case sensitive’ and ‘regular expressions’)

Rename using incremental numbers (pic-01.jpg, pic-02.jpg etc.)

Don’t hesitate to give it a try, since there’s always the very reassuring ‘undo’ button. You never know.

GPRename is available in Debian testing and unstable, and will also be available in Ubuntu Gutsy.