carta
vidir(1)

vidir1

Edit directories and filenames

Usage

vidir [--verbose] [{directory | file | -}] ...

Overview

vidir allows editing of directories and filenames in a text editor. If no directory is specified, the filenames of the current directory are edited.

When editing a directory, each item in the directory will appear on its own numbered line. These numbers are how vidir keeps track of what items are changed. Delete lines to remove files from the directory, or edit filenames to rename files. You can also switch pairs of numbers to swap filenames.

Filenames to be edited may be given any combination of directorys (which will be expanded to the non-recursive list of all files within directory), files, or -. If the latter is specified, vidir reads a list of filenames from stdin and displays those for editing.

Options

-v, --verbose

Verbosely display the actions taken by the program.

Examples

vidir
vidir *.jpeg

Typical uses.

find | vidir -

Edit subdirectory contents too. To delete subdirectories, delete all their contents and the subdirectory itself in the editor.

find -type f | vidir -

Edit all files under the current directory and subdirectories.

Environment

EDITOR

Editor to use.

VISUAL

Also supported to determine what editor to use.

History

  • Arch Linux 2026-11-01: the text shown here
  • Debian 13 (Trixie)
  • Debian 12 (Bookworm)
  • Debian 11 (Bullseye)
  • Debian 10 (Buster)
  • Debian 9 (Stretch)
  • Debian 8 (Jessie)
  • Debian 7 (Wheezy)
  • Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
  • Debian 5.0 (Lenny)
  • Debian 4.0 (Etch)

Author

Copyright 2006 by Joey Hess <[email protected]>

Licensed under the GNU GPL.

From moreutils 0.70-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.