mv Command Examples

Move or rename files and directories. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/mv-invocation.html.

• Rename a file or directory when the target is not an existing directory:

mv {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/target}}

• Move a file or directory into an existing directory:

mv {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/existing_directory}}

• Move multiple files into an existing directory, keeping the filenames unchanged:

mv {{path/to/source1 path/to/source2 ...}} {{path/to/existing_directory}}

• Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting existing files:

mv {{[-f|--force]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/target}}

• Prompt for confirmation interactively before overwriting existing files, regardless of file permissions:

mv {{[-i|--interactive]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/target}}

• Do not overwrite existing files at the target:

mv {{[-n|--no-clobber]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/target}}

• Move files in verbose mode, showing files after they are moved:

mv {{[-v|--verbose]}} {{path/to/source}} {{path/to/target}}

• Specify target directory so that you can use external tools to gather movable files:

{{find /var/log -type f -name '*.log' -print0}} | {{xargs -0}} mv {{[-t|--target-directory]}} {{path/to/target_directory}}