Siren (advanced filesystem renamer)

[Midas]

I just realized Siren (http://scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html) has no official forum topic.

TPFC database entry (https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1315) points to Teddybear1974NL original mention in a tentative portable programs list posted over ten years ago (viewtopic.php?t=1872).

In my experience Siren is one of the most powerful file renamers. It's multi-platform FLOSS software released under the GPL3, provides both GUI and CLI functionality, has always been natively portable and part of my default toolset like forever.

So, although Siren has not seen any new development since 2013, here's a post about it intended mostly to become the official forum topic.

Siren is a file renaming program

@ http://scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html

Siren last release (currently v3.14 dated 2013-12-27) can be downloaded from http://scarabee-software.net/en/download.html.

[Midas]

While debating CLI renamer functionality, TP109 provided some good working info regarding Siren (check viewtopic.php?p=96866#p96866).

This prompted me to make available the content of some files I had laying around, extracted from Siren's online help and program interface, which I posted there as reply.

But I think they make a lot more sense in a dedicated thread, so here they are again:

• https://rentry.co/siren_help

• https://rentry.co/siren_faq

I'll just quote myself regarding the content of the second link:

Includes a FAQ, the CLI parameters help output and 13 very detailed case examples.

All credit and praise to Rémi Pascal, Siren's author.

[TP109]

In my experience Siren is one of the most powerful file renamers.

Agree. Has ton's of features with almost limitless renaming options. Very fast. The interface opens and quits so quickly it can't be seen when executing a command. Certainly among the most advanced renamers out there. Not intuitive or newbie friendly though.

[TP109]

I found that the filter box on Siren's GUI doesn't work, at least 99.9% of the time, it's very buggy - at least on my system. However, filtering does work from the command line. Even the example filters provided by the developer won't filter the file list in the GUI.

I tested the /I and /p switches for loading .ini configuration files and can confirm that the /p switch does work, for example, "siren /p myconfigfile.ini". The /l switch causes the program to start, but it's very slow and eventually just loads the default config file, "siren.ini".

Siren Rev 3.14 tested Tested on XP

[Midas]

That sets it then -- I'll just correct my file to show "/p" instead of "/l".

And now that I'm doing it, I notice the latest version "man page" states "/l" is there to load a different language... so, no wonder it doesn't work as described in what is surely an earlier version of the FAQ.