rename

Renames a file.

Defined in header <stdio.h>

Syntax

#include <stdio.h>
int renameCconst  char *oldname, const char *newname);

Portability

Remarks

rename changes the name of a file from oldname to newname. If a drive specifier is given in newname, the specifier must be the same as that given in oldname.

Directories in oldname and newname need not be the same, so rename can be used to move a file from one directory to another. Wildcards are not allowed.

Return value

On successfully renaming the file, rename returns 0. In the event of error, -1 is returned, and the global variable errno is set to one of the following:

Example

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
   char oldname [801
/* prompt for file to  rename and new name */
printfC'File to rename:  ");
gets(oldname) ;
printf("New name:  ");
gets (newname);
/* rename the file  */
if  (rename(oldname, newname) == 0)
   printf ("Renamed %s to %s.\n", oldname, newname);
else
   perror("rename") ;
return 0;

Differences from modern implementations

Nothing recorded yet.

Modern references

• cppreference (search)
• Microsoft C runtime (search)

These are search links, not yet checked by hand.

Stable link: /3.1/stdio.h/rename/ · short form /3.1/rename/