Microsoft DOS ren and rename

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About ren and rename
Availability
Syntax
Examples

About ren and rename

Used to rename files and directories from the original name to a new name.

In earlier releases of MS-DOS instead of using ren or rename you need to use the move command to rename your MS-DOS directories or files.

Availability

The ren and rename commands are internal commands that are available in the below Microsoft operating systems.

All Versions of MS-DOS
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Syntax

Renames a file/directory or files/directories.

RENAME [drive:][path][directoryname1 | filename1] [directoryname2 | filename2]
REN [drive:][path][directoryname1 | filename1] [directoryname2 | filename2]

Note that you cannot specify a new drive or path for your destination.

Examples

rename c:\chope hope 

Rename the directory chope to hope.

rename *.txt *.bak

Rename all text files to files with .bak extension.

rename * 1_*

Rename all files to begin with 1_. The asterisk (*) in this example is an example of a wild character; because nothing was placed before or after the first asterisk, this means all files in the current directory will be renamed with a 1_ in front of the file. For example, if there was a file named hope.txt it would be renamed to 1_pe.txt.

rename "computer hope.txt" "example file.txt"

Rename the file "computer hope.txt" to "example file.txt". Whenever dealing with a file or directory with a space, it must be surrounded with quotes. Otherwise you'll get the "The syntax of the command is incorrect." error.