CompuServe Thread

James, AmigaDOS's rename command doesn't allow wildcard renames except to move files from one directory to another (thus the message about pic.#? not being a directory). Don

James, so far as I know, you can't do it with the Rename command. Instead, what you need to do is use the List command with the LFormat= parameter to create a batch file for you with all the appropriate info filled in, then execute that. For instance, if I had a directory full of pictures named pic01 through pic99 and I wanted to rename them all to pic01 through pic.99, I'd issue the following command: List >ram:temp "" LFORMAT="Rename %s frame%s" What did I do here? I told List to give me a list of files, sending the results to a file in the ram: drive called temp, of the files in the current directory (that's what "" indicates) and list it with the following format: Rename == the command we want to do. %s == give me the name of the file frame%s == a made up combination of the word frame and the name of the file (I'll explain that one in a minute) Now here is where you break out your trusty text editor, or if you don't want to use one, your wordprocessor. If you use your wordprocessor, make very sure that when you go to save the file, save it in ASCII format (usually under Export, or found under Save As). The reason I had to use the word frame, and it could be any word not containing "pic", is that you are going to be using the global search and replace function of your word processor or text editor, and it's easy to confuse the software with too many "pic" running around. The next step is to select your global search and replace function, search on "pic", replacing it with "." (a period). Next, search and replace "frame" with "pic". Next, after you have saved the file, as ASCII, go to the command line and type: Execute ram:temp And that should do the rename. Cumbersome as heck, but without going into ARexx, or using a third-party shell, that's the best I could come up with. It's a lot easier when the subsitution name does not involve a similiar string. For instance, to rename all my anything.c files to anything.cpp, all I have to type is: List >ram:temp #?.c LFORMAT="Rename %s %spp" and execute it. I hope this helps. Brian bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu