Rename-Item

Renames an item in a Windows PowerShell provider namespace.

Syntax

Rename-Item [-Path] <string> [-NewName] <string> [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-Force] [-PassThru] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [-UseTransaction] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Rename-Item cmdlet changes the name of a specified item. This cmdlet does not affect the content of the item being renamed.

You cannot use Rename-Item to move an item, such as by specifying a path along with the new name. To move and rename an item, use the Move-Item cmdlet.

Parameters

-Credential <PSCredential>

Specifies a user account that has permission to perform this action. The default is the current user.

Type a user name, such as "User01" or "Domain01\User01", or enter a PSCredential object, such as one generated by the Get-Credential cmdlet. If you type a user name, you will be prompted for a password.

This parameter is not supported by any providers installed with Windows PowerShell.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Force

Allows the cmdlet to rename items that cannot otherwise be changed, such as hidden or read-only files or read-only aliases or variables. The cmdlet cannot change constant aliases or variables. Implementation varies from provider to provider. For more information, see about_Providers. Even using the Force parameter, the cmdlet cannot override security restrictions.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-NewName <string>

Specifies the new name of the item. Enter only a name, not a path and name. If you enter a path that is different from the path that is specified in the Path parameter, Rename-Item generates an error. To rename and move an item, use the Move-Item cmdlet.

You cannot use wildcard characters in the value of NewName. To specify a name for multiple files, use the Replace operator in a regular expression. For more information about the Replace operator, type "Get-Help about_Comparison_Operators". For a demonstration, see the examples.

Required?	true
Position?	2
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-PassThru

Passes an object representing the item to the pipeline. By default, this cmdlet does not generate any output.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Path <string>

Specifies the path to the item to rename.

Required?	true
Position?	1
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before executing the command.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-WhatIf

Describes what would happen if you executed the command without actually executing the command.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-UseTransaction

Includes the command in the active transaction. This parameter is valid only when a transaction is in progress. For more information, see about_Transactions.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -OutBuffer, and -OutVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs and Outputs

The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.

Inputs

System.String

You can pipe a string that contains a path to Rename-Item.

Outputs

None or an object representing the renamed item.

When you use the Passthru parameter, Rename-Item generates an object representing the renamed item. Otherwise, this cmdlet does not generate any output.

Notes

The Rename-Item cmdlet is designed to work with the data exposed by any provider. To list the providers available in your session, type "Get-PsProvider". For more information, see about_Providers.

Example 1

C:\PS>rename-item -path c:\logfiles\daily_file.txt -newname monday_file.txt

This command renames the file daily_file.txt to monday_file.txt.

Example 2

C:\PS>rename-item -path project.txt -newname d:\archive\old-project.txt

Rename-Item : Cannot rename because the target specified represents a path or device name.
At line:1 char:12
+ rename-item <<<<  -path project.txt -newname d:\archive\old-project.txt
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Rename-Item], PSArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Argument,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand


C:\PS> move-item -path project.txt -destination d:\archive\old-project.txt
# Command succeeds


Description
-----------
This example shows that you cannot use the Rename-Item cmdlet to both rename and move an item. Specifically, you cannot supply a path for the value of the NewName parameter, unless the path is identical to the path specified in the Path parameter. Otherwise, only a new name is permitted.

The first command uses the Rename-Item cmdlet to rename the project.txt file in the current directory to old-project.txt in the D:\Archive directory. The result is the error shown in the output.

The second command shows the correct way to move and rename a file by using the Move-Item cmdlet. The Move-Item cmdlet lets you specify both a new path and a new name in the value of its Destination parameter.

Example 3

C:\PS>rename-item HKLM:\Software\MyCompany\Advertising -NewName Marketing

This command uses the Rename-Item cmdlet to rename a registry key from Advertising to Marketing. When the command is complete, the key is renamed, but the registry entries in the key are unchanged.

Example 4

C:\PS>get-childItem *.txt | rename-item -newname { $_.name -replace '\.txt','.log' }

This example shows how to use the Replace operator to rename multiple files, even though the NewName parameter does not accept wildcard characters.

This command renames all of the .txt files in the current directory to .log. 

The command uses a Get-ChildItem cmdlet to get all of the files in the current directory that have a .txt file name extension. Then, it uses the pipeline operator (|) to send the resulting files to the Rename-Item cmdlet. 

In the Rename-Item command, the value of the NewName parameter is a script block that is executed before the value is submitted to the NewName parameter.

In the script block, the $_ automatic variable represents each file object as it comes to the command through the pipeline. The command uses the dot format (.) to get the Name property of each file object. The Replace operator replaces the ".txt" file name extension of each file with ".log".

Because the Replace operator works with regular expressions, the dot preceding "txt" is interpreted to match any character. To ensure that it matches only a dot (.), it is escaped with a backslash character (\). The backslash character is not required in ".log" because it is a string, not a regular expression.