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Sorting Matches in F2 ​

Sorting files before renaming them is often useful, especially when applying an index in the replacement string. F2 offers robust sorting options to customize this process.

Using the --sort Flag ​

The --sort flag lets you define the sorting order, with several available options:

  • default: The default option which sorts the files in lexicographical order.
  • natural: Sort according to natural order so that filenames containing numbers are ordered naturally.
  • size: Sort the files by size.
  • mtime: Sort the files by last modified time.
  • btime: Sort the files by file birth time.
  • atime: Sort the files by last access time.
  • ctime: Sort the files by last changed time.
  • time_var: Sort the files by an arbitrary time variable (use with --sort-var).
  • int_var: Sort the files by an arbitrary integer variable (use with --sort-var).
  • string_var: Sort the files by an arbitrary string variable (use with --sort-var).

Sorting is in ascending order by default; for descending order, use --sortr:

bash
f2 -f 'image' -r 'pic-{%03d}' --sort natural # ascending order
bash
f2 -f 'image' -r 'pic-{%03d}' --sortr natural # descending order

Sorting by Arbitrary Variables ​

With time_var, int_var, and string_var, you can sort files using file attributes. These must be used alongside --sort-var to specify the variable. For instance, if sorting with time_var, --sort-var should resolve to a datetime string:

bash
f2 -f 'image' -r 'pic-{%03d}' --sort time_var --sort-var '{xt.DateTimeOriginal}'

Here, the DateTimeOriginal attribute (using exiftool) sorts images by the date they were taken. Without exiftool, the {x.cdt} variable could serve a similar purpose.

Another example, is sorting by the ISO of an image file. Since ISO is an integer, you can use int_var instead, then specify {xt.ISO} to resolve the ISO value for each file:

bash
f2 -f 'image' -r 'pic-{%03d}' --sort int_var --sort-var '{xt.ISO}'

Directory-Specific Sorting ​

When renaming files recursively, the --sort option can affect the order in which files are processed.

By default, sort operates globally, meaning all files across all subdirectories are sorted together as one big list. If you're using indexes, it may not yield the ordering that you want.

bash
f2 -f '.*\.txt' -r 'doc-{%03d}' -R --sort mtime

Output:

text
*————————————*——————————————*————————*
|  ORIGINAL  |   RENAMED    | STATUS |
*————————————*——————————————*————————*
| b.txt      | doc-001      | ok     |
| dir1/e.txt | dir1/doc-002 | ok     |
| a.txt      | doc-003      | ok     |
| dir1/d.txt | dir1/doc-004 | ok     |
| dir1/f.txt | dir1/doc-005 | ok     |
| c.txt      | doc-006      | ok     |
*————————————*——————————————*————————*

If you want to keep your files organized within their respective directories, you can append the --sort-per-dir option. This applies the sorting locally within each directory.

bash
f2 -f '.*\.txt' -r 'doc-{%03d}' -R --sort mtime --sort-per-dir

Output:

text
*————————————*——————————————*————————*
|  ORIGINAL  |   RENAMED    | STATUS |
*————————————*——————————————*————————*
| b.txt      | doc-001      | ok     |
| a.txt      | doc-002      | ok     |
| c.txt      | doc-003      | ok     |
| dir1/e.txt | dir1/doc-004 | ok     |
| dir1/d.txt | dir1/doc-005 | ok     |
| dir1/f.txt | dir1/doc-006 | ok     |
*————————————*——————————————*————————*

In this command, each directory's .txt files are renamed in order of modification time, but only compared with other files in the same directory. This way, directory hierarchy is preserved, and files are consistently renamed within their local context.