mv - Move/Rename Files in Linux

From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · File & Directory Operations · verified Jul 2026

mv - Move/Rename Files

Move or rename files and directories

bash

# Move files
mv source.txt /path/to/destination/

# Rename files
mv oldname.txt newname.txt

# Move multiple files
mv file1.txt file2.txt /target/dir/

# Move with confirmation
mv -i source.txt dest.txt

✅ Works for both moving and renaming files

💡 -i prompts before overwriting files

🔍 No -r needed for directories (unlike cp)

filesmoverenamebasic

More Linux tasks

ls - List Files
cd - Change Directory
cp - Copy Files
rm - Remove Files
mkdir - Create Directories
touch - Create/Update Files

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