Linux commands: mv

By Flavio Copes

Learn how the Linux mv command moves a file to a new path, how it doubles as the way you rename files, and how to move several files into a folder at once.

Once you have a file, you can move it around using the mv command. You specify the file current path, and its new path:

touch test
mv pear new_pear

The pear file is now moved to new_pear. This is how you rename files and folders.

If the last parameter is a folder, the file located at the first parameter path is going to be moved into that folder. In this case, you can specify a list of files and they will all be moved in the folder path identified by the last parameter:

touch pear
touch apple
mkdir fruits
mv pear apple fruits #pear and apple moved to the fruits folder

This command works on Linux, macOS, WSL, and anywhere you have a UNIX environment

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