Linux mv command - rename files and directories

Linux mv command: rename files and directories, move files and directory paths.

Linux mv command Function Description

Use the mv command to change the names of files and directories, and to move the paths of files and directories.

The mv command is used to rename files or directories, or to move files from one directory to another. source indicates the source file or directory, and target indicates the target file or directory. If a file is moved to an already existing target file, the contents of the target file will be overwritten.

The mv command can be used to move a source file to a target file, or to move a group of files to a target directory. There are two different results for a source file being moved to a target file.

1. If the target file is a path to a directory file, the source file will be moved to this directory and the file name will remain the same.
2. If the target file is not a directory file, the source file name (there can be only one) will be changed to this target file name and overwrite the existing file with the same name. If the source file and the target file are in the same directory, the function of mv is to change the file name. When the target file is a directory file, and there can be more than one source file or directory parameter, all the source files will be moved to the target file. All files moved to that directory will keep their previous filenames.

The result of mv and cp is different. mv seems to "move" files, but the number of files does not increase. While cp copies the files, the number of files increases.

Linux mv command Syntax

mv [options] [source file|directory] [target file|directory]

The meaning of each option in the command is shown in the table.

Option	Description
-i	Ask before overwriting
-f	Do not ask before overwriting
-n	Do not overwrite existing files
-u	Move only if the source file is newer than the target file, or if the target file does not exist
-T	Treating the target file as a normal file

Linux mv command Examples

Move all files with the suffix ".png" from the /root/pic directory to the /usr/local/share/pic directory

[root@rhel ～]# mv -f /root/pic/*.png /usr/local/share/pic

Rename the file /root/apidemos.diff.txt to /root/apimodes.mv.txt

mv apidemos.diff.txt apidemos.mv.txt

Output:

Change the name of the directory /root/pic to /root/mypic

[root@rhel ～]# mv /root/pic /root/mypic

Move all files in the directory /usr/men to the current directory (denoted by . ) into the current directory

mv /usr/men/* .

Moving files

mv file_1.txt /home/office/

Moving multiple files

mv file_2.txt file_3.txt file_4.txt /home/office/
mv *.txt /home/office/

Mobile Directory

mv directory_1/ /home/office/

Rename a file or directory

mv file_1.txt file_2.txt # Rename the file file_1.txt to file_2.txt

Rename Directory

mv directory_1/ directory_2/

Print mobile information

mv -v *.txt /home/office

Prompt for overwritten files

mv -i file_1.txt /home/office

Update only when the source file is newer than the target file

mv -uv *.txt /home/office

Do not overwrite any existing files

mv -vn *.txt /home/office

Create backups during replication

mv -bv *.txt /home/office

Unconditionally overwrite existing files

mv -f *.txt /home/office