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mv — move or rename

cheat sheet · Ubuntu 24.04 · GNU coreutils 9.4 https://lab.dimsanych.ru/en/wiki/mv/

Cheat sheet

mv old.txt new.txt rename
mv report.txt ~/archive/ move into a directory, same name
mv a.txt b.txt docs/ several files into a directory
mv project ~/old-project a directory — no options, whole
mv -i new.conf app.conf ask before overwriting
mv -n new.conf app.conf never overwrite an existing file
mv -v *.log /tmp/logs/ print each move
mv -b new.conf app.conf the old one becomes app.conf~
mv -- -file.txt file.txt a name that starts with a dash

Options

The safety options are the same as in cp: -i, -n, -b. Full list — man mv.