How do I rename a file with C# with a pure C# .NET rename command using wildcards?

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How would I rename a File with pure C# .NET (no API!) using wildcards and using actually a real "rename" or "name" command, not a move or copy or something like that.

1) I wish not to move the files, don't suggest to "move" - they are large large files!
2) I don't wish to use the Visual Basic namespace for it - I would like to do it with C#.
3) I need to use Wildcards on this!

the dos equivalent would be: ren C:\ServerLogs\etc\*.log *.oldlogs

What I have tried:

While VB6 and even VB .NET has an inbuild command to rename files I cannot find a native C# command. Only including the VB namespace and this is ruled out, because the tool shall stay small and run only with pure C#.
I was okay to use the dos command, but there is a timing issue and a path issue with it. The path issue is, that with the dos command the tool only works if I have actually an explorer window open in the logfile directory. if I change my path the tool cannot work longer. so I tried to use DOS but it is to problematic with the currentdir variable. I found nothing on the whole .NET about a valid rename with C#, only to MOVE the whole file. I will not move a file to rename it!
Has someone a better idea, if unavoidable even as an API?

Attention: Please no loops there, need only wildcards without slow loops.

I agree on a DOS Command too. But I need the right syntax for the DOS Command that I have not to rely on curdir and my application would work in any directory.
If this is possible, please tell me how I have to call the DOS Command the right way with full paths in both strings and how I can wait until the DOS Command is really finished. And then I need to know if it was really successfully finished. That's the problem with DOS, else I would use only DOS for C#, since C# has no powerful commands to deal with files!

Posted 11-Apr-16 3:23am

ByeByeByeByeBye

Updated 12-Apr-16 0:19am

v3

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Comments

Sinisa Hajnal 11-Apr-16 9:54am

VB.NET has the method, as you noticed, but internally it uses File.Move just with some extra checks (existence of the files in question).

Also from MSDN: When using Rename to copy a file from an unprotected location to a protected location, the file retains the less restricted rights. Check to make sure that you are not introducing a possible security risk.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 10:28am

In any of the OS C# can work in, there is no such thing as "DOS command".
In C#, there is no such thing as "command".

You whole question is the reflection of a user's, non-engineering views. You need to start seeing the real operations behind user-level metaphors. And yes, you need Move. You idea of "whole file" is totally imaginary. The operation depends on Move is equivalent to copy and delete only between different volumes; in other cases, it is not.

—SA

Philippe Mori 12-Apr-16 12:49pm

What you want is not directly available and you don't want to learn/use what would help you fixes your problems. I could do many suggestions but obviously, they are all above your current skills and you don't see to want to invest time in doing things correctly.

4 solutions

Solution 1

Not as easy as DOS unfortunately - I would start with something like

C#

DirectoryInfo d = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\ServerLogs\etc\");
FileInfo[] infos = d.GetFiles();
foreach(FileInfo f in infos)
{
    String newFileName = // Use A Regex Here To Translate f.FullName -> newFileName 
                         // Or Maybe newFileName = f.FullName.Replace(".log", ".oldlogs");
    File.Move(f.FullName, newFileName);
}

Posted 11-Apr-16 3:42am

Garth J Lancaster

Updated 11-Apr-16 3:52am

v6

Comments

Garth J Lancaster 12-Apr-16 7:51am

the c# solution needs sfa to make it work - iirc you can pass a wildcard to d.GetFiles(); as in d.GetFiles("*.oldlogs"); to get only those files

if you want a DOS solution you could do

string renCmdText = "/C ren C:\ServerLogs\etc\*.log *.oldlogs";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd.exe", renCmdText);

Solution 4

From solution 2 and 3, you already know that you should really need File.Move. I only have to add that even of the source and destination files are in different directories but in the same disk volume, it's not physically moving of the whole file — the file system is not that stupid. It's still closer to renaming, by functionality.

Now, remaining thing is using the wildcard. No one explained it; and the idea of using Regex (Solution 1) is irrelevant.

Really, the wildcards can come with System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(string, string, SearchOption), in a second parameter, searchPattern:
Directory.GetFiles Method (String, String, SearchOption) (System.IO)[^].

However, it works not exactly as most people would reasonably expect. I would even call it a flaw or a bug in the system. Please see my past answer explaining that: Directory.Get.Files search pattern problem[^].

—SA

Posted 11-Apr-16 4:38am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 13:43pm

Read my answer carefully. It's second parameter. It can have wild cards.
There is no such thing as "extension".
I have no idea why you have the problem you described; you did not demonstrate it. Such problem doesn't really exist. Maybe you screwed up something, but who knows how? The problem is really simple.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 17:30pm

No. There is no "commercial version" of .NET. All versions are freely re-distributable. Read this:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.directory%28v=vs.110%29.aspx.

You will see three (3) GetFiles functions with one, two or three parameters.

Now, there is no such thing as "rename drive", and never way.
What function "doesn't handle files only the same directories"? What can it even mean?

Look, to do development, you have to learn to pay at least minimal attention.

—SA

Richard MacCutchan 12-Apr-16 6:38am

That is because you misunderstand what you are supposed to do. You cannot use wildcards inside a program like that, as they have no meaning. You can use them to get a list of all matching files, but then you will still need to rename (aka move) each one individually. And that is all that the command line rename command does under the covers. So, bottom line, why do you want to write a program that does exactly what rename does already?

Oh, and by the way, renaming from drive C: to drive E: means that the files will have to be physically moved.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Apr-16 8:57am

Listen again. I cannot help a person who cannot pay at least some minimal attention.
A wild card comes in the second parameter of Directory.GetFiles. NOT File.Move.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Apr-16 9:00am

From the standpoint of any API, there are volumes. It does not matter if they are partitions on the same disk.
After all, do you understand the purpose of partitions?

And there is no such thing as "DOS command" on your system.

—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Apr-16 9:01am

Forget Regex. No reason to repeat every stupidity some member wrote to you.
—SA

Philippe Mori 12-Apr-16 12:20pm

Would using shell API fixes some OP problems?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Apr-16 12:31pm

I started to feel that nothing can help him in principle. Look at all his comments.
There are no any technical problems here.
—SA

Solution 3

Hi,

for all intrinsic purposes the File.Move() method is a file rename method if the path is the same for the file being "moved"(absolute)it will only rename the file,
else it will move the file if it is a different path(Relative). See the following MSDN link for further information File.Move Method (String, String) (System.IO)[^]

Posted 11-Apr-16 4:09am

Michael Tolmay

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 13:55pm

You failed to understand what we explained to you. What Move actually does depends on actual parameters. It's not what you assume it does.
—SA

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phil.o · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-11T03:48:00

Solution 2

In C#, you rename a file by using the System.IO.File.Move method.
If the containing folder for the source and destination files is the same, the file will not be moved, but renamed instead (i.e., there will not be any copy of the file, only the filename will be changed).

SO: How to rename a file in .NET?[^]
MSDN: File.Move Method (String, String)[^]

[Edit] Added example code
There is also a Path.ChangeExtension method that could suit your need.
Path.ChangeExtension Method (String, String)[^]

C#

foreach (string filename in Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\ServerLogs\etc", "*.log", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
{
   Path.ChangeExtension(filename, ".oldlogs");
}

Posted 11-Apr-16 3:48am

phil.o

Updated 11-Apr-16 21:57pm

v3

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 10:29am

Sure, a 5.
—SA

phil.o 11-Apr-16 10:33am

Thanks Mr Kryukov :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 10:40am

Ah, we forgot the trickier part of the question, about wild cards (and Solution 1 is just wrong). Please see Solution 4.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Apr-16 17:36pm

Your whole application should be: take set of files in a directory (recursive or not) and move it. And this application (only one file) can be put down as a whole, and only if you don't understand what is the comprehensive content sufficient for communication on the problem. Not the application where you want to use what you are asking about. Isn't it obvious?
—SA

phil.o 12-Apr-16 3:40am

"move" was anyway outruled in beforehand
You have to explain this then. Because from what I understand you do not want the file to be copied then deleted, you want it to be renamed directly. Which is exactly what the Move method is doing when the source and destination folders are the same.
If you do not want to use the Move method just because its name is Move, then it would be like asking "Ok I want to drive but I don't want to step down on the gas pedal".
And for the wildcard thing, you do realize what these wildcars are for, don't you? It's just a way to say "Take all the .log files in a place and change their extension to .oldlogs". There is no existing method in C# that will analyze the wildcards the way a DOS program does; instead, you have to enumerate in a loop the files you are interested in, and act on them iteratively. Solution 1 has given the way.
Please define exactly what you mean when you say "no move".

phil.o 12-Apr-16 6:02am

That's one of the most stupid things I've heard for a long time...

Jochen Arndt 12-Apr-16 6:33am

You are wrong if you think that the DOS rename command does not use loops. It does internally the same as described here:

Iterating through the files in the directory matching the source mask and then renaming each file found.

'ren' is a command built into the command interpreter cmd.exe. While there is no source code for the MS command interpreter, there is for FreeDOS:
https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/svn/HEAD/tree/freecom/trunk/cmd/ren.c

phil.o 12-Apr-16 6:45am

That's because you execute the loop on the UI thread.. if you execute the loop on another thread, message are still processed and you do not experience UI freezes.

phil.o 12-Apr-16 6:54am

You're wrong in saying that you cannot access elements on your forms from another thread. There are numerous examples on how to do that.
Negating this fact because "it does not work the way you have imagined" does not you make right, either.

phil.o 12-Apr-16 7:07am

Control-invoking is here exactly for the sake of maintaining the responsiveness of the UI while executing long-running operations. Using it is not using a space shuttle to wash some plates, that's just the right tool for the actual requirement.

Jochen Arndt 12-Apr-16 6:53am

C and C++ programs may hang for the same reason as your program:
There is a bug or it is badly designed. Don't blame the language when a program does not work as expected. Blame the programmer.

C# is not much slower than C/C++. Especially in this case it does not care because the file I/O operations (reading and writing directory entries here) are the time consuming operations which are done by the operating system and took therefore the same time regardless of the language that calls the operating system API functions.

If you don't want the UI to be blocked when performing longer tasks, use worker threads. This applies to every programming language.

Finally, if you don't like C#, why you are using it? Just use C or C++ if you care about speed. But I guess you will run into similar (and other) problems.

phil.o 12-Apr-16 6:18am

To which method did you compare your results? Excluding all loops "because they are slow" is nonsense.
And goto-loops should be avoided not because they are slow, but because they are a remainder of the old times when OOP did not exist and we only had sequential code.
If you want to throw away all looping methods, then good luck for you.

phil.o 12-Apr-16 6:47am

Opinions are like nipples, everyone has some. Here we're talking about facts. Loops are not slow inherently, but only because of the way you are using them in the context of a GUI.