Master Bulk File Renaming on Any OS with F2 – The Ultimate Command‑Line Tool

What is F2?

F2 is a cross‑platform command‑line utility for bulk renaming of files and directories. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and emphasizes safety with a dry‑run mode and conflict detection. Variable substitution from file metadata (EXIF, ID3) is supported.

Key Features

Cross‑platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux).

Dry‑run mode ( -x) to preview changes before applying.

Metadata variables (EXIF dates, camera model, ID3 artist/album).

Full‑text and regular‑expression replace ( -e).

Recursive processing ( -R) with optional depth control.

Automatic conflict resolution ( --auto) or forced overwrite ( --replace).

Undo capability ( f2 --undo).

Extensive documentation and examples.

Installation

macOS

Homebrew

brew install f2
f2 --version

Binary tar.gz from the GitHub releases page: download, extract, chmod +x, move to /usr/local/bin.

Linux

Download the appropriate tar.gz, .deb or .rpm from the GitHub releases page and install with tar, dpkg or rpm.

Arch Linux:

yay -S f2-bin

Windows

Download the Windows tar.gz, extract, place f2.exe in a directory and optionally add it to PATH.

Package managers:

Winget: winget install ayoisaiah.f2 Scoop:

scoop bucket add ayoisaiah-scoop-bucket https://github.com/ayoisaiah/scoop-bucket
scoop install f2

Chocolatey:

choco install f2

From source

Go

go install github.com/ayoisaiah/f2/v2/cmd/f2@latest
f2 --version

NPM

npm i @ayoisaiah/f2 -g
f2 --version

Basic Usage Examples

Add a prefix to all files in the current directory: f2 -r 'doc_{f}{ext}' . Search and replace a word: f2 -f 'old' -r 'new' . Use regular expressions: f2 -e -f 'project[0-9]' -r 'plan' . Organize photos by EXIF date:

f2 -r '{x.cdt.YYYY}/{x.cdt.MM}/{x.cdt.YYYY}-{x.cdt.MM}-{x.cdt.DD}_{n}{ext}' -R --target-dir .

Recursively rename files in subfolders: f2 -f 'IMG' -r 'Party' -R . Undo the last operation: f2 --undo Resolve naming conflicts automatically or force overwrite:

f2 --auto ...
# or
f2 --replace ...

Advanced Options

Include hidden files with -H.

Case transformations: {lc} for lower‑case, {uc} for upper‑case.

Number files using the {n} placeholder.

Rename based on ID3 tags: f2 -r '{id3.artist}/{id3.album}/{id3.title}{ext}'.

Reference

GitHub project: https://github.com/ayoisaiah/f2/