mv Command

The external mv command moves a file from an existing location to a new location. It is also used as the rename command to change the name of a file.  It often can be used instead of rm  command providing safer deletion fo files.  Alternative to move command can be ln command which create reference for the file without moving the file to new directory or under different name.

The mv command can be used whenever you need to rename  a file including cases when the file has special characters in it. 

As Unix does not have a rename command usage of mv for renaming of a directory to the name that already exists can lead to SNAFU.

It has three formats allowing you to:

• Rename a file with a new filename.
• Move one or more files to reside under a different directory.
• Rename a directory with a new directory name.

The general formats of the mv command follow.

mv [ -if ] [ - ] filename new_filename

mv [ -if ] [ - ] filename directory

mv [ -if ] [ - ] old_directory new_directory

Options

Only one option may be used to control how mv functions.

Arguments

following list describes the arguments that may be passed to the mv command.

The first format renames a file. The name of the existing file is changed to the name of new_filename. The new_filename and the existing filename cannot be the same full pathname. They may have the same filename, providing they reside in different directories. If the new filename is an existing file and you have write permissions, its contents are lost. If the destination is a link to another file, the link is lost and the destination filename points to the new file.

The second format moves one or more files to a different directory. The filename_list is a list of pathnames being moved. The basename of each pathname is used for the destination filename in the specified directory. For example, if you wanted to move all files beginning with memo to the memodir directory, you would type mv memo* memodir.

The third format renames a directory. The name of the directory is changed to the new directory name you specify. The same restrictions apply to directory renaming as file renaming. If you are renaming directories, the two directory names reside in the same file system.

The mv command actually performs an ln and an rm. A link (ln) is created from the existing file to the new filename. Then the existing filename is removed (rm). If the new filename already exists, it is removed (rm) before the move attempts to link.

Before mv performs these steps it checks the destination file for write permissions. If you do not have write permissions on the destination file or directory, mv will display the mode (chmod; Module 17) and request a response from standard input. If the input line you type starts with a "y," mv attempts to move the file to the target. If the ownership permissions allow you to write to the target, the move will occur. If you do not have permission to write to the destination, the mv will fail.

If you are moving files across file systems, the mv command performs a cp and then an rm command. The file is copied to its destination and then the existing file is removed. The new file is owned by you if you moved it.

Some common formats are:

The mv command must copy the existing file to the destination and remove the original if the files reside on different file systems. All links are lost if this action occurs.

Related commands are cp, ln, rm, chmod, chown, and ls commands.

Examples

1. List your HOME directory by typing ls and pressing Return. Notice the file named file1 in the following display.

      cj> ls -x
      bin     calendar  db   file1     file2     letters
   

2. Rename file2 to stuff by typing mv file2 stuff and pressing Return.
3. List the directory to verify your filename changed by typing ls and pressing Return. The following display reflects the change:

      cj> ls -x
      bin     calendar  db   file1     letters   stuff
   

4. Let's assume that we have a file with spaces in it (or worse with special characters) and want to rename it to normal file. One way to do this is to use asterisk or dot in place of those characters in name. For example
   if you have a file "my windows file with spaces.html" you can try

   mv my*spaces.shtml "my_normal_file.html

NEWS CONTENTS

• 20190828 : How to Replace Spaces in Filenames with Underscores on the Linux Shell ( Aug 28, 2019 , vitux.com )
• 20190828 : 9 Quick 'mv' Command Practical Examples in Linux ( Aug 28, 2019 , www.linuxbuzz.com )
• 20170505 : As Unix does not have a rename command usage /nof mv for renaming can lead to SNAFU ( www.softpanorama.org )
• 20170505 : BigAdmin Description mv [filename]{,.new_suffix} ( BigAdmin Description mv [filename]{,.new_suffix}, )

Old News ;-)

[Aug 28, 2019] How to Replace Spaces in Filenames with Underscores on the Linux Shell

You probably would be better off with -nv options for mv

/n

Aug 28, 2019 | vitux.com

/n /n

/n$ for file in *; do mv "$file" `echo $file | tr ' ' '_'` ; done/n

/n /n

[Aug 28, 2019] 9 Quick 'mv' Command Practical Examples in Linux

/n

Aug 28, 2019 | www.linuxbuzz.com

/n /n/n

Example:5) Do not overwrite existing file at destination (mv -n)

/n/n

Use '-n' option in mv command in case if we don't want to overwrite an existing file at/n destination,

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ ls -l tools.txt /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 24 09:59 /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 24 10:10 tools.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

/n/n

As we can see tools.txt is present in our current working directory and in /tmp/sysadmin,/n use below mv command to avoid overwriting at destination,

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv -n tools.txt /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

Example:6) Forcefully overwrite write protected file at destination (mv -f)/n/n

Use '-f' option in mv command to forcefully overwrite the write protected file at/n destination. Let's assumes we have a file named " bands.txt " in our present working directory/n and in /tmp/sysadmin.

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ ls -l bands.txt /tmp/sysadmin/bands.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 25 00:24 bands.txt/n-r--r--r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 25 00:24 /tmp/sysadmin/bands.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

/n/n

As we can see under /tmp/sysadmin, bands.txt is write protected file,

/n/n

Without -f option

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv bands.txt /tmp/sysadmin/bands.txt/n

/n/n

mv: try to overwrite '/tmp/sysadmin/bands.txt', overriding mode 0444/n (r–r–r–)?

/n/n

To forcefully overwrite, use below mv command,

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv -f bands.txt /tmp/sysadmin/bands.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

Example:7) Verbose output of mv command (mv -v)/n/n

Use '-v' option in mv command to print the verbose output, example is shown below

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv -v  buzz51.txt buzz52.txt buzz53.txt buzz54.txt /tmp/sysadmin//n'buzz51.txt' -> '/tmp/sysadmin/buzz51.txt'/n'buzz52.txt' -> '/tmp/sysadmin/buzz52.txt'/n'buzz53.txt' -> '/tmp/sysadmin/buzz53.txt'/n'buzz54.txt' -> '/tmp/sysadmin/buzz54.txt'/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

Example:8) Create backup at destination while using mv command (mv -b)/n/n

Use '-b' option to take backup of a file at destination while performing mv command, at/n destination backup file will be created with tilde character appended to it, example is shown/n below,

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv -b buzz55.txt /tmp/sysadmin/buzz55.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ ls -l /tmp/sysadmin/buzz55.txt*/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 25 00:47 /tmp/sysadmin/buzz55.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 0 Aug 25 00:37 /tmp/sysadmin/buzz55.txt~/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

Example:9) Move file only when its newer than destination (mv -u)/n/n

There are some scenarios where we same file at source and destination and we wan to move the/n file only when file at source is newer than the destination, so to accomplish, use -u option in/n mv command. Example is shown below

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ ls -l tools.txt /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 55 Aug 25 00:55 /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n-rw-rw-r--. 1 linuxbuzz linuxbuzz 87 Aug 25 00:57 tools.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

/n/n

Execute below mv command to mv file only when its newer than destination,

/n

/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$ mv -u tools.txt /tmp/sysadmin/tools.txt/n[linuxbuzz@web ~]$/n

/n/n

That's all from this article, we have covered all important and basic examples of mv/n command.

/n/n

Hopefully above examples will help you to learn more about mv command. Write your feedback/n and suggestions to us.

/n /n /n

[May 05, 2017] As Unix does not have a rename command usage /nof mv for renaming can lead to SNAFU

/n/n

www.softpanorama.org

/n/n

If destination does not exist it behaves as rename command but if destination exists and is directory it move it one level up

/n/n

For example, if you have directories /home and home2 and want to move all subdirectories from /home2 to /home /n and the directory /home is empty you can't use

/n/n

mv home2 home

/n/n

if you forget to remove the directory /home, mv silently will create /home/home2 directory and you have a problem if /n this is user home directories.

/n /n

BigAdmin Description mv [filename]{,.new_suffix}

mv [filename]{,.new_suffix}

This format of the 'mv' command appends the 'new_suffix' to the filename without having to re-type the filename over again.

Example:
% mv my_file_name.txt{,.old}

This moves the file named 'my_file_name.txt' to 'my_file_name.txt.old'.

Useful for very long filenames.

Etc

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Last modified: February, 19, 2020