modname

modname is an interactive file rename utility based on GNU readline.

There is already the command mv and the command rename. Why another command?

I often want to make slight modifications of a filename and have structured filenames that require multiple keystrokes and tab auto completions to complete on the commandline. Doing the same char-tab-char-tab-char-tab-... sequence two times is annoying. So this utility allows to do it once and then modify the filename in place with line editing support.

The name modname is a short variant of "modify name".

Usage:

Example console capture:

$ touch fileX
$ modname fileX
> fileX

The last line is a interactive. You can edit the filename with the line editing support (like a shell prompt) by GNU readline.

After you made the changes to the filename, you can hit enter to rename the file. Then the console screen may look like

$ touch fileX
$ modname fileX
> fileY
$ ls
fileY

How to build

Ensure that you have the library and headers for GNU readline installed. Then just execute

$ make

The binary modname is build directly in the current/root directory of the project.

How to install

There is currently no install target. Just copy the binary modname into a folder that is also in your PATH environment variable.

How to test

Execute

$ make && ./test.py
$ make modnametest && ./modnametest

Homepage and repo

There is a projects homepage.

The source code repo is on github. To clone the repo, execute

$ git clone https://github.com/lengfeld/modname

License

This program is licensed under GPLv2-only. See the file LICENSE.txt or the Free Software Foundation website: GNU General Public License, version 2

Learnings

Bootstrap your test infrastructure as early as possible.

Use a code formatter. I don't want to format/indent my code manually.

Use C variable attribute cleanup to avoid memory leaks and coding mistakes.

TODOs

Enable sanitziers for test binarys.

Also try out valgrind.

Add manpage

Add install Makefile target

debian/ubuntu package and gentoo ebuild

Support arguments like -v/--version and -h/--help.