Ubuntu
util-linux package

Why is /usr/bin/rename.ul missing/removed from the util-linux package?

Asked by Lucas Sandery

The common program to do batch renaming, rename.ul, was in Ubuntu up to and including Focal (https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/amd64/util-linux/filelist), but is not in Groovy (https://packages.ubuntu.com/groovy/amd64/util-linux/filelist). What's the reason for this?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

rename.ul was removed in version 2.35.2-5 (between focal and groovy).

see also https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=926637

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Lucas Sandery (lucas+-) said : 		#2

That's essentially saying "It was removed because it was removed." I understand why rename.ul was made unavailable in update-alternatives, but that has nothing to do with its complete removal from the system. It already got a suffix to differentiate it. There was no reason for dropping it given in that thread, and I haven't been able to find any public discussion on it.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#3

The decision was taken by Debian, and Ubuntu just followed. If you want to discuss that, you better ask in a Debian forum, e.g. http://forums.debian.net/

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Eric J Schwarzenbach (ericjs) said : 		#4

Did you ever get any answer to this from debian or elsewhere or have any luck getting it back?

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Lucas Sandery (lucas+-) said (last edit ): 		#5

I didn't bother asking elsewhere. I've looked at Debian sources (https://sources.debian.org/src/util-linux/) and it doesn't list version 2.35.2-5, so not sure where to look for it. All listed versions after that one do contain the rename.c program in the misc-tools dir. Maybe 'removed' meant 'not included in the compiled package'.

Regardless, it is present again on Ubuntu Lunar, and /etc/debian_version contains "bookworm/sid". I guess somebody realised that being ineligible for inclusion in update-alternatives doesn't warrant its removal.

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Eric J Schwarzenbach (ericjs) said : 		#6

That's good to hear. For 22.04 LTS I just downloaded the source and built it. FWIW to anyone needing to do this, something like the following works to build just the rename command from linux-utils:

wget https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/v2.39/util-linux-2.39.1.tar.gz
tar xvzf util-linux-2.39.1.tar.gz
cd util-linux-2.39.1
./configure --disable-all-programs --enable-rename
make rename
cp rename /usr/local/bin/rename.ul

(I'm not sure the disable / rename bit was needed but that was what I ran before realizing you could name individual utilities in their make.)

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Lucas Sandery (lucas+-) said : 		#7

Cheers for sharing your solution for LTS users.