multiple_file_renaming.py

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name:         Automatic file renaming
# Purpose:      Rename all the files in a folder to new randomly generated
#               strings of 7 characters including all uppercase and lowercase
#               letters and dashes.
#
# Author:       Carla Fernandez
#
# Created:      28/11/2015
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
import os
import sys
import random

def main():
    pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789'
namelen = 7

# ---------------- methods --------------------

def process_folder(path):
    try:
        for filename in os.listdir(path):
                if not(os.path.isdir(os.path.join(path,filename))):
                    ext = os.path.splitext(filename)[1]
                    print ("\t filename: %s" %filename)
                    new_filename = ''.join(random.choice(chars) for i in range(namelen)) + ext
                    while new_filename in os.listdir(path):
                        new_filename = ''.join(random.choice(chars) for i in range(namelen)) + ext
                    print ("\t new filename: %s" %new_filename)
                    os.rename(path + os.sep + filename, path + os.sep + new_filename)
                else:
                    process_folder(os.path.join(path,filename))
        return True
    except IOError:
        return False



def main():
    for path in sys.argv[1:]:
        #if we do not have enough distinctive filenames
        global namelen
        if len(os.listdir(path)) > (2**len(chars) * 2**namelen):
            print ("Current length too short for this pattern")
            namelen = int(len(os.listdir(path))**(1/len(chars)))
            print ("Length updated to %d" %namelen)

        print ("Renaming in path: %s..." %path)
        result = process_folder(path)
        if result:
            print ("Success!")
        else:
            print ("An error ocurred.\n Please try again")

# ---------------- application --------------------
main()