mv — move and rename files

💬 "mv command"

• Concept: Short for Move, it moves files or folders to another location or renames them. Unlike copying, the original is not kept.
• Output structure: If successful, it prints nothing. Add -v to show the moved result one line at a time.
• Recommended output in practice: Use mv -v to keep a log of operations, and use -i to prevent accidentally overwriting existing files.
• Left column: Shows the path or name of the source to be moved.
• Right column: Shows the path or new name after it has been moved.

3 Essential Command Combinations

• mv a b — Change the file name to b
• mv a dir/ — Move the file to another folder
• mv -i a dir/ — Confirm before overwriting

Here are some useful options to know.

• -n — Skip without overwriting if the destination already exists
• -v — Display the move result one line at a time

💬 "Show me an example of how you use this in practice."

Scenario: A new deployment has a problem, and you need to roll back to the previous version.

Step 1: Mark the previous version

Move the current deployment to a backup name.

mv -v app app.old

Step 2: Apply the new deployment

Move the deployment that was on standby to the service name.

mv -v app.new app

Step 3: Verify the result

Check the folder list.

ls -al

Actual execution screen

This is an example screen of renaming a file with mv -v.

!mv command execution result: displays the move from the original to the new name

An actual production server

Source (HTML): https://games.aidebatehub.com/programs/linux/filesystem/mv.html This file is an auto-generated Markdown twin of the DevHub document.