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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Advanced Topics</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../thunar.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Thunar File Manager"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="Thunar File Manager"><link rel="prev" href="customizing-thunar.html" title="Customizing Thunar"><link rel="next" href="faq.html" title="Frequently Asked Questions"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Advanced Topics</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="customizing-thunar.html">Prev</a>�</td><th width="60%" align="center">�</th><td width="20%" align="right">�<a accesskey="n" href="faq.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="advanced-topics"></a>Advanced Topics</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="to-bulk-rename-files"></a>To Bulk Rename Files</h3></div></div></div><p>
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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Advanced Topics</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../thunar.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="Thunar File Manager"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="Thunar File Manager"><link rel="prev" href="customizing-thunar.html" title="Customizing Thunar"><link rel="next" href="faq.html" title="Frequently Asked Questions"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Advanced Topics</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="customizing-thunar.html">Prev</a>�</td><th width="60%" align="center">�</th><td width="20%" align="right">�<a accesskey="n" href="faq.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1" title="Advanced Topics"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="advanced-topics"></a>Advanced Topics</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2" title="To Bulk Rename Files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="to-bulk-rename-files"></a>To Bulk Rename Files</h3></div></div></div><p>
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To <span class="emphasis"><em>bulk rename</em></span> files means to rename multiple files at once using some criterion, that applies to atleast
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one of the files. <strong class="application"><code>Thunar</code></strong> includes a bulk renamer, which can be run separately using the command
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<span class="command"><strong>Thunar -B</strong></span> or from within <strong class="application"><code>Thunar</code></strong> by selecting two or more files in the main area
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The <span class="emphasis"><em>Bulk Renamers</em></span> can be applied to the name of the files, the suffix of the files or both to the
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name and the suffix of the files. <strong class="application"><code>Thunar</code></strong> currently supports the following <span class="emphasis"><em>Bulk
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Renamers</em></span>:
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</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>Remove characters.</p></li><li><p>Numbering files.</p></li><li><p>Insert Date or Time.</p></li><li><p>Insert or overwrite characters.</p></li><li><p>Search and replace characters.</p></li><li><p>Convert to uppercase, lowercase or camlcase.</p></li></ul></div><p>
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</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>Remove characters.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Numbering files.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Insert Date or Time.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Insert or overwrite characters.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Search and replace characters.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Convert to uppercase, lowercase or camlcase.</p></li></ul></div><p>
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Additional <span class="emphasis"><em>Bulk Renamers</em></span> may be installed as plugins for <strong class="application"><code>Thunar</code></strong>. Check
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the <a class="ulink" href="http://thunar.xfce.org/plugins.html" target="_top">Thunar Plugins</a> website for currently available
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extensions. The <a class="ulink" href="http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/documentation/bulk_renamer" target="_top">Thunar Project Wiki</a>
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contains further details about this feature. Feel free to add more information to the Wiki.
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</p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="the-unix-file-system"></a>The UNIX File System</h3></div></div></div><p>
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</p></div><div class="sect2" title="The UNIX File System"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="the-unix-file-system"></a>The UNIX File System</h3></div></div></div><p>
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While the Thunar file manager does a good job at abstracting the details of the underlying file system, so the user
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does not need to care about them, it is sometimes useful to understand the basic concepts to get the whole picture.
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This section tries to give a brief introduction to the concepts of the UNIX file system, which is used today by all
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incarnations of UNIX, including Linux.
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</p><div class="sect3" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="folders-and-paths"></a>Folders and Paths</h4></div></div></div><p>
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</p><div class="sect3" title="Folders and Paths"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="folders-and-paths"></a>Folders and Paths</h4></div></div></div><p>
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In a UNIX file system all folders are arranged in a simple inverted tree structure descending and branching down
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from a single top level folder, which is called the <span class="emphasis"><em>root directory</em></span> (the term
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<span class="emphasis"><em>directory</em></span> is often used instead of <span class="emphasis"><em>folder</em></span>) and displayed as
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<code class="filename">/home/luke</code> would be the home directory of the user with the login name
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<code class="filename">luke</code>, while <code class="filename">/home/jane</code> would be
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the home directory for the user with the login name <code class="filename">jane</code>.
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</p></div><div class="sect3" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="file-types"></a>File Types</h4></div></div></div><p>
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</p></div><div class="sect3" title="File Types"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="file-types"></a>File Types</h4></div></div></div><p>
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You may have already heard that everything is a file in UNIX. This is true for most objects present in UNIX systems
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today. In fact even devices are represented as a special files. While this may not make sense at first sight, it is
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one of the strengths of UNIX and its derivates, and has helped it to maintain a simple core over the years where other
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operating systems had to introduce new concepts for every new technology.
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These are the four most important types of files in the UNIX file system.
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</p><div class="sect4" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-ordinary-files"></a>Ordinary Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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</p><div class="sect4" title="Ordinary Files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-ordinary-files"></a>Ordinary Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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An ordinary file may contain text, a program or other data. This includes image files, audio files, office documents
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and video files. The term <span class="emphasis"><em>file</em></span> is often used to refer to an ordinary file.
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</p></div><div class="sect4" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-folder-files"></a>Folder Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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</p></div><div class="sect4" title="Folder Files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-folder-files"></a>Folder Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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Folders are also files in the UNIX file system. To be exact a folder is a special file, which contains a
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mapping of file names to file references for every file contained within this folder.
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</p></div><div class="sect4" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-symbolic-link-files"></a>Symbolic Link Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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</p></div><div class="sect4" title="Symbolic Link Files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-symbolic-link-files"></a>Symbolic Link Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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A Symbolic link (often called a <span class="emphasis"><em>symlink</em></span>) is a special file that contains a path to
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another file in the file system. Symbolic link files therefore do not contain any useful information
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themselves, but just refer to other files.
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</p></div><div class="sect4" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-device-files"></a>Device Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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</p></div><div class="sect4" title="Device Files"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a name="file-types-device-files"></a>Device Files</h5></div></div></div><p>
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As mentioned earlier (most) devices are also accessed through the file system. These special device files are
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usually located in the <code class="filename">/dev</code> folder. For example the special file
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<code class="filename">/dev/hda</code> represents the first IDE disk on Linux.