Networking / Beginners

The mv command

The mv command moves files or renames them. In Linux, moving and renaming a file is essentially the same thing. Moving a file changes the file's directory location but leaves its name the same. Renaming a file leaves the file in the same directory but changes the file's name.

The syntax of the mv command is

mvp [options] source-file destination

The following paragraphs describe the options:

  • -b: Makes backup copies of existing files before they're overwritten. Sounds like a good plan to me.
  • -f: Removes files that will be overwritten.
  • -i: Interactively prompts for each file to be overwritten.
  • -u: Replaces destination files only if the source file is newer.

To move a file to another directory, provide a filename for the first argument and a directory for the second, like this:

$ mv monthly.report /home/Debbie/

To rename a file, provide filenames for both arguments:

$ mv monthly.report august.monthly.report
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In this tutorial:

  1. Linux Commands
  2. Command Shell Basics
  3. Editing commands
  4. Wildcards
  5. Redirection and piping
  6. Environment variables
  7. Shell scripts
  8. Directory and File Handling Commands
  9. The cd command
  10. The mkdir command
  11. The rmdir command
  12. The ls command
  13. The cp command
  14. The rm command
  15. The mv command
  16. The touch command
  17. The cat command
  18. Commands for Working with Packages and Services
  19. The rpm command
  20. Commands for Administering Users
  21. The usermod command
  22. The chage command
  23. The passwd command
  24. The newusers command
  25. The groupadd command
  26. The groupdel command
  27. Commands for Managing Ownership and Permissions
  28. The chgrp command
  29. The chmod command
  30. Networking Commands
  31. The ipconfig command
  32. The netstat command
  33. The ping command
  34. The route command
  35. The traceroute command