The linux ‘mv’ command is used to move existing file or directory from one location to another. When you want to rename a single directory or file then ‘mv’ option will be better to use.
mv also works for renaming a file:
For example:
$ mv doc document
In the above example, we have renamed file ‘doc’ into ‘document’.
Now if we want to move a file from one directory to other directory, we should use:
$ mv <path-of-source> <path-of-destination>
Note that, move accepts *, ., ..; So we can use it like:
$ mv test1.txt ..
The above example moves test1.txt to parent directory.
$ mv * ..
The above example moves all files and directories in the current directory to parent directory.
$ mv *.txt ~/Documents
The above example moves all the files with “.txt” at end, to Documents directory of users home directory.
$ mv /var/logs/* ~/logs
The above example all files in /var/logs directory to logs directory of user’s home directory.
How To Rename a Directory ?
Directories can be renamed in the same way as the files. In this case also number will remain the same.
mv example Option are show below :
- mv -iprompts before overwrite
- mv -bbacks up files in the destination if exists
- mv -uonly move those files that doesn’t exist or the source file is newer than the destination