Command: ren / rename

  REN / RENAME renames a file/directory or files/directories.

Syntax:

  REN [drive][path][directoryname1 | filename1]
      [directoryname2 | filename2] [/?]
  RENAME [drive][path][directoryname1 | filename1]
      [directoryname2 | filename2] [/?]
      drive           The drive letter, e.g. C:
      path            The directory, e.g. \example\ , complete:
                      "C:\example\"
      directoryname1  The name of the old subdirectory,
                      e.g. \dir_old , complete: "C:\example\dir_old"
      directoryname2  The name of the new subdirectory,
                      e.g. dir_new , complete: "dir_new"
      filename1       The old filename, e.g. \old_file.txt
                      complete: "C:\example\old_file.txt"
      filename2       The new filename, e.g. new_file.txt
                      complete: "new_file.txt"

Options:

  /?  Shows the help.

Comments:

  The "destination" must not contain any path specification, the
  "source" file is renamed within the directory it is currently located
  in, see example 2 below. Any wildcards used within "destination" are
  replaced by the corresponding character of the source filename, see
  example 4 below.
  Wildcars are "*" and "?". ? symbolizes ONE character only, e.g.
  "e?ample" means, that only ? can be replaced by any character whereas
  * means that beginning with * all characters are possible e.g. "ex*"
  can be everything from "ex" via "exa" till "exzzz999" or "ex999zzz".
  In pure DOS the directory name must not be longer than 8 letters.
  Filenames use 8.3 means: 8 letters for the name, 3 letters for
  ending, e.g. example1.txt. So a "*" can fill up till maximum 8
  characters.
  REN is a command internal to command.com and needs no other file
  in order to work.

Examples:

  Example 1:
    REN file1.txt file2.txt
  Renames file1.txt into file2.txt
  Example 2_
    REN path\file1.txt file2.txt
  Renames path\file1.txt into path\file2.txt
  Example 3:
    REN path\file*.txt *.bak
  Renames all files located within directory path with extension .txt
  and which filename is beginning with file, such as file.txt, filea.txt
  and file99xx.txt, into *.bak files.
  Example 4:
    REN *.DAT A*.*
  Renames all files located within the current directory with extension
  .DAT into files by replacing the very first character of the filename
  by the letter A, all other characters, the file extension and path are
  remain unchanged.
  Example 5:
    REN *.TXT ??b*.bak
  Renames all files located within the current directory with extension
  .TXT into files by replacing the third character of the filename by
  the letter B and the file extension to .BAK, all other characters and
  the file path are remain unchanged.
  Warning: If the source file name consists of one character only, the
  second question mark in the destination pattern is ignored, hence,
  e.g. the file A.TXT is renamed into AB.BAK by this example, what is
  incompatible to MS COMMAND v6.22 (maybe others, too), which embedds
  a space as second character making the file inaccessable, but what is
  exactly the same behaviour of the same MS COMMAND's COPY command.
  Example 6:
    c:                        You are at C:\
    md test1                  You create the directory C:\test1
    cd test1                  You change into directory C:\test1
    md test2                  You create a subdirectory C:\test1\test2
    cd test2                  You change into C:\test1\test2
    echo hallo > text01.txt   You create a file text01.txt inside there
                              So now you have c:\test1\test2\text01.txt
    cd ..                     You go back to C:\test1
    ren test2 test3           Now you have C:\test1\test3 with file
                              text01.txt inside (directory has new name)

Command: ren / rename

Syntax:

Options:

Comments:

Examples:

See also: