ren renames multiple files in a directory, accepting wildcards. 
It was originally written by Vladimir Lanin <lanin@csd2.nyu.edu> 
and submitted to comp.sources.unix (Vol. 18, Issue 22) in 1988.  
The original shar archive is included here as rename-files.orig.
I just changed a few things so that it would compile under Linux.
(see ren.c.linux-patch).

This is the author's comment in his post to comp.sources.unix:

     This must have been done already by someone somewhere, but I could
     not find it, so here goes.

     Whereas mv can rename (as opposed to move) only one file at a time,
     the following program (ren) can rename many files according to
     search and replacement patterns, ala VMS (but better).  ren checks
     for replacement name collisions and handles rename chains
     gracefully.

     Vladimir Lanin 

To compile untar and gzip and do "make" in the directory ren.
Next put the resulting binary and the man page in an appropriate 
place (I suggest /usr/bin and /usr/man/man1, respectively).

Enjoy,

Rob Schipper 
<rvs@gol.com>
31 MAR 1997
