To move a file or rename a file you would use the mv command. Here the file name gets changed from first.txt to second.txt.

move the file file1 from the current working directory to the /tmp directory you would run:

To rename a file you need to specify the destination file name:

The syntax for moving directories is the same as when moving files. In the following example, if the dir2 directory exists, the command will move dir1 inside dir2. If dir2 doesn’t exist, dir1 will be renamed to dir2:

To move multiple files and directories, specify the files you want to move as the source. For example, to move the files file1 and file2 to the dir1 directory you would type:

The mv command also allows you to use pattern matching. For example, to move all pdf files from the current directory to the ~/Documents directory, you would use:

In some Linux distributions, mv may be an alias to the mv command with a custom set of options. For example, in CentOS mv is an alias to mv -i. You can find whether mv is an alias using the type command:

If mv is alias the output will look something like this:

If you try to overwrite a read-only file, the mv command will prompt you whether you want to overwrite the file

To avoid being prompted use the -f options

The -n option tells mv never to overwrite any existing file

If the destination file exists you can create a backup of it using the -b option

The backup file will have the same name as the original file with a tilde (~) appended to it.

Use the ls command to verify that the backup was created

The backup file will have the same name as the original file with a tilde (~) appended to it.

Use the ls command to verify that the backup was created

Another option that can be useful is -v. When this option is used, the command prints the name of each moved file:

By default, if the destination file exists, it will be overwritten. To prompt for confirmation, use the -i option

Create backup of destination file

Create backup file without argument

Do not prompt before overwriting

Prompt before overwriting files

Not overwrite an existing fileNot overwrite an existing file

Move all source arguments into directory

Treat destination as a normal file

Move when source file is newer than the destination file either destination file is missing

Prompt what is happening

Displays a help message and then exits

Moves or renames files and directories.