MV: Moving Files and Directories in Linux

How to move files or directories using the mv command in Linux.

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Edited: 2019-12-11 12:23

The mv command can be used both to rename, and to move files and directories in Linux from a console.

Note. If you struggle to remember how the command is used, then you should check out project humanize to get a dialogue based interface.

Here is an example of how to use the mv command:

mv [file_or_directory] [new_location]

To rename a file or directory, simply write a different destination name:

mv ~/Documents/my-document-txt ~/Documents/new-name.txt

If you do not type a destination file name, the file or directory will just be moved to the new location. I.e.:

mv ~/personal-files/ ~/Documents/

This will move the personal-files directory to the Documents folder.

The mv command works both with absolute and relative paths.

# Current user (self)
~/Documents

# Linking to Other users home
~Other_User/Documents