PadMan

A utility for normalizing numeric prefixes in filenames. It just pads 0 to the beginning till all the filenames start with the same number of digits and therefore are sorted correctly.

Why?

To fix this mess.

If you noticed, there's one rename.py in the left sidebar. That was the initial script I wrote for this. It worked perfectly. But what's the point of knowing JS if I can't publish my random garbage on NPM? Hence, this.

Installation

Run directly with npx:

npx padman [directory] [options]

Install globally:

npm install -g padman

Install in a project:

npm install padman

Usage

Command Line Interface

# Rename files in the current directory
padman

# Rename files in a specific directory
padman /path/to/directory

# Preview changes without actually renaming (dry run)
padman --dry-run
padman -d

API Usage

import { renameFiles } from 'padman';

async function example() {
  try {
    // Rename files in a directory
    const results = await renameFiles('/path/to/directory');
    console.log(results);
    
    // Dry run - just report what would change, don't actually rename
    const dryRunResults = await renameFiles('/path/to/directory', { dryRun: true });
    console.log(dryRunResults);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
  }
}

example();

What it does

This utility looks for files with numeric prefixes (like 11-file.txt, 2-file.txt) and renames them to have consistent padding with leading zeros (like 11-file.txt, 02-file.txt).

This makes alphabetical sorting work properly for collections of numbered files.

API Reference

renameFiles(directory, options)

Renames files in a directory to have consistent numeric prefixes.

• directory (string): The directory containing files to rename
• options (object, optional):
  • dryRun (boolean): When true, doesn't actually rename files, just shows what would happen

Returns: Promise<string[]> - Array of messages describing the actions taken

validateDirectory(directory)

Validates if a path exists and is a directory.

• directory (string): The directory path to validate

Returns: Promise - Resolves to true if valid, throws error otherwise

getMaxDigitLength(files)

Gets the maximum digit length of numeric prefixes in filenames.

• files (string[]): Array of filenames to analyze

Returns: number - The maximum digit length found, or 0 if none

License

ISC