Ren (command)

ren / rename
The ReactOS ren command
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

ren (or rename) is a shell command for renaming a file and in some implementations (such as AmigaDOS^[1]) a directory.

Some shells with ren also provide a move command that provides for moving between directories. On systems that do not support a move command (such as MS-DOS older than 6.00), the user could copy a file to a new destination and then delete the original file. In DOSBox, ren can move files.

The command is in various shells such as COMMAND.COM, Command Prompt,^[2] 4DOS, 4NT and PowerShell. In MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later.^[3] In PowerShell, ren is a predefined alias for the Rename-Item Cmdlet which serves the same essential purpose.^[4]

Similar commands are available in many operating systems. The command is available in the CP/M,^[5] MP/M,^[6][7] Cromemco DOS,^[8] TRIPOS,^[9] OS/2,^[10] ReactOS,^[11] SymbOS, and DexOS. Multics includes a rename command to rename a directory entry; which could be contracted to rn.^[12] A rename command which in some cases can be contracted to ren is provided in Stratus VOS,^[13] RT-11,^[14] OS/8,^[15] RSX-11,^[16] ISIS-II,^[17] iRMX 86,^[18] TOPS-20,^[19] Z80-RIO,^[20] FLEX,^[21] OS-9,^[22] FlexOS,^[23] 4690 OS,^[24] MPE/iX,^[25] THEOS/OASIS,^[26] and OpenVMS^[27] A rename command is supported by 86-DOS.^[28] DR DOS 6.0 includes ren and rename commands.^[29] PC-MOS includes an implementation of rename.^[30][31] It is also available in the MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.

The following renames file foo to bar.

> ren foo bar

The following renames a file specified by a fully qualified path. The first parameter may contain drive and path information, but the second parameter must be only a file name.

> rename "C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv" Wildlife2.wmv

The following removes abcd of a file name in Command Prompt based on the following rules:

• Same number of / as the number of characters to remove
• Requries double quotes for both arguments
• Won't remove . from a file name

> rename "abcd*.txt" "////*.txt"

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Guide to Windows Commands

• List of DOS commands
• List of PowerShell commands

• Wolverton, Van (1990). MS-DOS Commands: Microsoft Quick Reference, 4th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-1556152894.
• Kathy Ivens; Brian Proffit (1993). OS/2 Inside & Out. Osborne McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0078818714.
• Frisch, Æleen (2001). Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0-596-00148-3.

• ren | Microsoft Docs