chext -- Change file extension(s)

chext is a simple shell utility to change the extension of a file or list of files.

Important note: Joseph LaFreniere has written a POSIX-complient fork of chext. We recommend using his fork which can be found here:

https://github.com/lafrenierejm/chext

Installation

Clone the repository (git clone https://github.com/joe-antognini/chext.git). Then run install.sh.

Depending on if you want to install to /usr/local (the default) on Linux you may need to run sudo install.sh. You can alternatively follow the instructions to install locally to ~/bin.

Or if you want to do it all yourself, copy chext to somewhere in your PATH and chext.1 to somewhere in your MANPATH.

Options

-i -- Interactive mode. Prompts for confirmation before moving a file that would overwrite an existing file.

-v -- Verbose mode. Show the original and final filename.

Examples

$ # Change the extension of a single file
$ touch foo.bar
$ chext foo.bar baz
$ ls
foo.baz

$ # Change the extension of multiple files
$ touch qux.baz
$ chext *.baz bar
$ ls
foo.bar qux.bar

$ # Verbose mode
$ chext -v *.bar baz
foo.bar -> foo.baz
qux.bar -> qux.baz

$ # Prompt before overwriting a file
$ touch qux.bit
$ chext -i qux.* bar
overwrite qux.bar? (y/n [n])
not overwritten
$ ls
foo.baz qux.bar qux.bit

$ # chext handles multiple extensions
$ rm *
$ touch foo.bar.baz
$ chext foo.bar.baz qux
$ ls
foo.bar.qux

$ # chext doesn't get confused by hidden files
$ touch .foo
$ chext .foo bar
chext: change extension of .foo to bar: File has no extension

Uninstalling

Run uninstall.sh. This may fail to remove the man page if you put it somewhere unusual.