Recovering from Renaming Failures
F2's conflict detection helps prevent most common renaming issues. However, there are still some cases where renaming a file or directory may fail due to external factors. These include:
- The source file is being used by another program.
- The source file has been moved or modified by another program.
- You do not have the necessary permissions to rename the file.
When a renaming operation fails for any file, F2 does not halt the entire process. Instead, it skips to the next file in the list.
At the end of the renaming process, it will display a summary of the files that failed to be renamed along with the reasons why.
Example Renaming Operation with Failures
In the following example, we will attempt to rename several JPEG files in a directory. Some of these files will be made immutable using the chattr
command on Linux, causing the renaming operation to fail for those files.
Here's the directory structure before renaming:
├── kevin-wong-tt7aK2yV7xo-unsplash.jpg
├── nathan-anderson-7TGVEgcTKlY-unsplash.jpg
├── photo-1434907652076-85f8401482c3.jpg
├── photo-1510272839903-5112a2e44bc6.jpg
├── photo-1521579971123-1192931a1452.jpg
├── samuele-errico-piccarini-t4OxCpKie70-unsplash.jpg
└── valentin-salja-VMroCCpP648-unsplash.jpg
Use the following command to make some of the files immutable:
sudo chattr +i kevin-wong-tt7aK2yV7xo-unsplash.jpg nathan-anderson-7TGVEgcTKlY-unsplash.jpg valentin-salja-VMroCCpP648-unsplash.jpg
Now, attempt to rename the files using F2:
f2 -r "unsplash-image-%03d" -ex
Output:
error: rename kevin-wong-tt7aK2yV7xo-unsplash.jpg unsplash-image-001.jpg: operation not permitted
error: rename nathan-anderson-7TGVEgcTKlY-unsplash.jpg unsplash-image-002.jpg: operation not permitted
error: rename valentin-salja-VMroCCpP648-unsplash.jpg unsplash-image-007.jpg: operation not permitted
error: some files could not be renamed
In this output, the renaming operation was successful for some files but failed for the immutable files.
Here's the current directory structure after renaming
├── kevin-wong-tt7aK2yV7xo-unsplash.jpg
├── nathan-anderson-7TGVEgcTKlY-unsplash.jpg
├── unsplash-image-003.jpg
├── unsplash-image-004.jpg
├── unsplash-image-005.jpg
├── unsplash-image-006.jpg
└── valentin-salja-VMroCCpP648-unsplash.jpg
The immutable files were not renamed, but the rest were successfully renamed as per the command.
Reverting the Changes
If you wish to revert the changes that were successful, you can use the --undo/-u
flag. First, perform a dry-run to preview the changes, and then execute the actual reversion.
f2 -u # dry-run
f2 -ux # revert the changes
After running the revert command, all files will be restored to their original state, allowing you to fix the issues (e.g., removing the immutable attribute) before attempting to rename the files again.