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How can I move all files and folders from one directory to another via mv command?

Luka
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7 Answers7

198

Try with this:

mv /path/sourcefolder/* /path/destinationfolder/
mulaz
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    This wouldn't include any "hidden" files (eg. `.htaccess`) – Ben Lessani Oct 05 '12 at 12:53
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    Good point. If you are using bash, then you can run `shopt -s dotglob` and then "*" will match hidden files, too. – chutz Oct 05 '12 at 14:52
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    What happens if there are folders and files with the same name in the destination folder? Are they overwritten? – user1063287 Jun 14 '16 at 01:08
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    ... it seems folders with the same name are not overwritten. `mv: cannot move '/a/js' to '/b/js': Directory not empty` – user1063287 Jun 14 '16 at 01:29
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    You just pass `-f` to it to overwrite – Luka Jul 20 '18 at 11:22
  • @Luka actually -f doesn't help with overwriting folders. Says the same thing. You gotta use rsync or make sure folders are empty – trainoasis Nov 25 '18 at 22:00
  • It does help if you use `/bin/mv -f` instead of `mv -f`. Because `mv` is by default aliased to `-i` on some distributions. And that's why it appears it doesn't work. Add this `alias cp='cp'` to `~/.bash_aliases` to fix it. – Luka Nov 26 '18 at 16:19
  • @trainoasis so sorry, not `-f`, you should use `-r`. But the same applies to alias if it's aliased it won't work properly. – Luka Nov 28 '18 at 19:38
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    To move the current dir content - **mv ./* ../another_folder** – Gal Bracha Nov 21 '19 at 14:10
38

zsh:

mv /src/*(D) /dst/

(D) to include dot-files.

Stéphane Chazelas
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21

This works for me in Bash (I think this depends on your shell quite a bit...)

$  mv source/{,.}* /destination/folder/here
Niall Byrne
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    Actually, it shouldn't since in Bash `source/{,.}*` matches dir-entries named `./` and `../` – poige Oct 10 '12 at 21:48
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    When I try I get `mv: overwrite 'destination/.'? mv: overwrite 'destination/..'?`, but adding `-n` to `mv` stops it from trying to overwrite – Putnik Dec 05 '12 at 20:05
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    @Putnik - that's a good gotcha! what os/distro ? ( I was working on OSX when I was messing around with this...) – Niall Byrne Dec 07 '12 at 03:38
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    @Niall Byrne - I see the same prompt as Putnik. Using Ubuntu 14.04. – Mark Doliner Dec 23 '14 at 06:16
9

This works for me in Bash 4.2.46, it moves all files and folders including hidden files and folders to another directory

mv /sourcedir/{,.[^.]}* /destdir/

Notice that .[^.]* means all hidden files except . and ..

Jun
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I'd say it's a bit boring, but really bullet-proof (GNU) way is:

cd /SourceDir && find ./ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -exec mv -t /Target/Dir {} +

P. S. Now you can possibly see why lots of people do prefer Midnight Commander, though.

Stéphane Chazelas
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poige
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-1

If you only want to do a cut and paste-like action there is a simple way that worked for me:

$mv /media/dir_source $HOME/Documents/

It will move the folder named dir_source located in /media to the directory $HOME/Documents/

Raphael Ahrens
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user141726
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yet another way just for the heck of it (because I love convoluted ways to do things I guess)

cd /source
for f in $(\ls -QA); do eval mv $f /destination/$f; done

the -Q and the -A are not POSIX, however the -A is fairly prevalent, and to not use the -Q you need to change the IFS (which then means you don't need the eval but need to quote the variable)

IFS="
" && for f in $(ls -A); do mv "$f" /destination/"$f"; done
Drake Clarris
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