Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 27, 2026

Ren (command)

ren is a shell command for renaming a file and in some implementations a directory.

Last revised
May 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
788 w
Citations
31
Source
Wikipedia ↗
ren / rename
DevelopersVarious open-source and commercial developers
Operating systemOpenVOS, RT-11, OS/8, RSX-11, ISIS-II, iRMX 86, TOPS-20, Z80-RIO, FLEX, CDOS, OS-9, FlexOS, PC-MOS, 4690 OS, MPE/iX, THEOS/OASIS, OpenVMS, CP/M, MP/M, TRIPOS, AmigaDOS, DOS, MSX-DOS, SISNE plus, OS/2, Windows, ReactOS, SymbOS, DexOS
PlatformCross-platform
TypeCommand

ren (or rename) is a shell command for renaming a file and in some implementations (such as AmigaDOS1) a directory.

Some shells with ren also provide a move command that provides for moving between directories. On systems that do not support a move command (such as MS-DOS older than 6.00), the user could copy a file to a new destination and then delete the original file. In DOSBox, ren can move files.

Description of the RENAME command of RT-11SJ displayed on a VT100. source ↗

The command is in various shells such as COMMAND.COM, Command Prompt,2 4DOS, 4NT and PowerShell. In MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later.3 In PowerShell, ren is a predefined alias for the Rename-Item Cmdlet which serves the same essential purpose.4

Similar commands are available in many operating systems. The command is available in the CP/M,5 MP/M,67 Cromemco DOS,8 TRIPOS,9 OS/2,10 ReactOS,11 SymbOS, and DexOS. Multics includes a rename command to rename a directory entry, which could be contracted to rn.12 A rename command which in some cases can be contracted to ren is provided in Stratus VOS,13 RT-11,14 OS/8,15 RSX-11,16 ISIS-II,17 iRMX 86,18 TOPS-20,19 Z80-RIO,20 FLEX,21 OS-9,22 FlexOS,23 4690 OS,24 MPE/iX,25 THEOS/OASIS,26 and OpenVMS27 A rename command is supported by 86-DOS.28 DR DOS 6.0 includes ren and rename commands.29 PC-MOS includes an implementation of rename.3031 It is also available in the MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.

Example

The following renames file foo to bar. 

> ren foo bar

The following renames a file specified by a fully qualified path. The first parameter may contain drive and path information, but the second parameter must be only a file name. 

> rename "C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv" Wildlife2.wmv

The following removes abcd of a file name in Command Prompt based on the following rules:

  • Same number of / as the number of characters to remove
  • Requries double quotes for both arguments
  • Won't remove . from a file name
> rename "abcd*.txt" "////*.txt"
See also

See also

References

References

  1. Rügheimer, Hannes; Spanik, Christian (September 19, 1988). AmigaDOS quick reference. Grand Rapids, Mi : Abacus. ISBN 9781557550491 – via Internet Archive.
  2. "Microsoft TechNet Rename (ren) article". 11 September 2009.
  3. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
  4. "Microsoft TechNet PowerShell Rename-Item (ren) article". 22 October 2009.
  5. "Manual" (PDF). www.cpm.z80.de. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  6. Digital Research (July 1981) [1979]. MP/M - Multi-Programming Monitor Control Program - User's Guide (PDF) (4 ed.). Pacific Grove, CA, USA: Digital Research. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  7. Digital Research (1981-09-25). MP/M-86 Operating System - User's Guide (PDF) (1 ed.). Pacific Grove, CA, USA: Digital Research. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  8. CDOS USER'S MANUAL
  9. "Manual" (PDF). www.pagetable.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  10. "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  11. "reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.
  12. "Multics Commands". www.multicians.org.
  13. "Manual" (PDF). stratadoc.stratus.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  14. "RT-11 HELP FILE". paleoferrosaurus.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  15. "Concise Command Language" (CCL)."OS/8 Handbook" (PDF). April 1974. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  16. John F. Pieper (1987). RSX A Guide for Users (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. ISBN 0-932376-90-8. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  17. ISIS II Users Guide
  18. iRMX™86 INTRODUCTION AND OPERATOR'S REFERENCE MANUAL For Release 6
  19. "TOPS-20 Command manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  20. "Z80-RIO OPERATING SYSTEM USER'S MANUAL" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-28. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  21. "FLEX 2.0 User's Manual" (PDF).
  22. Paul S. Dayan (1992). The OS-9 Guru - 1 : The Facts. Galactic Industrial Limited. ISBN 0-9519228-0-7.
  23. "FlexOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.bitsavers.org. 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  24. "Users guide" (PDF). archive.org. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  25. "MPE/iX Command Reference Manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  26. THEOS/OASIS User's Handbook
  27. OpenVMS User's Manual
  28. 86-DOS - Disk Operating System for the 8086 - User's Manual (PDF). Version 0.3 (Preliminary ed.). Seattle, Washington, USA: Seattle Computer Products, Inc. 1980. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-07-14. Retrieved 2019-07-14. (59 pages)
  29. DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
  30. PC-MOS User Guide
  31. Jansen, Roeland (8 February 2018). "pcmos386v501: PC-MOS/386 v5.01 final release including cdrom driver sources" – via GitHub.
Further reading

Further reading

External links