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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

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) 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

The command is available in the operating systems Digital Research CP/M, MP/M, Cromemco CDOS, MetaComCo TRIPOS, DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, SymbOS, and DexOS.

Multics includes a rename command to rename a directory entry. It can be contracted to rn.

Stratus OpenVOS, DEC RT-11, OS/8, RSX-11, Intel ISIS-II, iRMX 86, TOPS-20, Zilog Z80-RIO, TSC FLEX, Microware OS-9, DR FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, HP MPE/iX, THEOS/OASIS, and OpenVMS 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. On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later. DR DOS 6.0 also includes an implementation of the ren and rename commands.

In Windows PowerShell, ren is a predefined command alias for the Rename-Item Cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.

TSL PC-MOS includes an implementation of rename. Like the rest of the operating system, it is licensed under the GPL v3.

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:

1. Same number of / as the number of initial characters to remove.
2. Double quotes for both arguments.
3. It doesn't remove . from file name

See also

• List of DOS commands
• List of PowerShell commands

References

1. Rügheimer, Hannes; Spanik, Christian (September 19, 1988). AmigaDOS quick reference. Grand Rapids, Mi : Abacus. ISBN 9781557550491 – via Internet Archive.
2. "Manual" (PDF). www.cpm.z80.de. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
3. Digital Research (July 1981) . 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.
4. 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.
5. CDOS USER'S MANUAL
6. "Manual" (PDF). www.pagetable.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
7. "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
8. "Microsoft TechNet Rename (ren) article". 11 September 2009.
9. "reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.
10. "Multics Commands". www.multicians.org.
11. "Manual" (PDF). stratadoc.stratus.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
12. "RT-11 HELP FILE". paleoferrosaurus.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
13. "Concise Command Language" (CCL)."OS/8 Handbook" (PDF). April 1974. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
14. John F. Pieper (1987). RSX A Guide for Users (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. ISBN 0-932376-90-8. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
15. ISIS II Users Guide
16. iRMX™86 INTRODUCTION AND OPERATOR'S REFERENCE MANUAL For Release 6
17. "TOPS-20 Command manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
18. Z80-RIO OPERATING SYSTEM USER'S MANUAL
19. "FLEX 2.0 User's Manual" (PDF).
20. Paul S. Dayan (1992). The OS-9 Guru - 1 : The Facts. Galactic Industrial Limited. ISBN 0-9519228-0-7.
21. "FlexOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.bitsavers.org. 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
22. "Users guide" (PDF). archive.org. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
23. "MPE/iX Command Reference Manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
24. THEOS/OASIS User's Handbook
25. OpenVMS User's Manual
26. 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)
27. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
28. DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
29. "Microsoft TechNet PowerShell Rename-Item (ren) article". 22 October 2009.
30. PC-MOS User Guide
31. Jansen, Roeland (8 February 2018). "pcmos386v501: PC-MOS/386 v5.01 final release including cdrom driver sources" – via GitHub.

Further reading

• 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.

External links

• ren | Microsoft Docs

• Windows commands
• CP/M commands
• Internal DOS commands
• MSX-DOS commands
• OS/2 commands
• ReactOS commands
• Microcomputer software
• Windows administration