<p>Moving files and directories is one of the most basic tasks you often need to perform on a Linux system.</p>

<p>In this tutorial, we will explain how to use the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command to move files and directories.</p>

<h2 id="how-to-use-the-mv-command">How to Use the mv Command</h2>

<p>The&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command (short from move) is used to rename and move and files and directories from one location to another. The syntax for the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command is as follows:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv [OPTIONS] source destination</code></pre>

<p>The&nbsp;<code>source</code>&nbsp;can be one or more files or directories and&nbsp;<code>destination</code>&nbsp;can be a single file or directory.</p>

<ul>
<li>If you specify multiple files or directories as a&nbsp;<code>source</code>, the&nbsp;<code>destination</code> must be a directory. In this case, the <code>source</code>&nbsp;files are moved to the target directory.</li>
<li>If you specify a single file as&nbsp;<code>source</code>, and the&nbsp;<code>destination</code>&nbsp;target is an existing directory then the file is moved to the specified directory.</li>
<li>If you specify a single file as&nbsp;<code>source</code>, and a single file as&nbsp;<code>destination</code> target then you&rsquo;re renaming the file.</li>
<li>If the&nbsp;<code>source</code>&nbsp;is a directory and&nbsp;<code>destination</code>&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t, exist&nbsp;<code>source</code>&nbsp;will be renamed to&nbsp;<code>destination</code>, otherwise it be moved inside the&nbsp;<code>destination</code> directory.</li>
</ul>

<p>To move a file or directory you need to have write permissions on both&nbsp;<code>source</code> and <code>destination</code>. Otherwise, you will receive a permission denied error.</p>

<p>For example, to move the file&nbsp;<code>file1</code>&nbsp;from the current working directory to the&nbsp;<code>/tmp</code>&nbsp;directory you would run:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<p>To rename a file specify the destination file name:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv file1 file2</code></pre>

<p>The command for moving directories is the same as when moving files. In the following example if the&nbsp;<code>dir2</code>&nbsp;directory exists the command will move&nbsp;<code>dir1</code>inside&nbsp;<code>dir2</code>. If&nbsp;<code>dir2</code>&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t exist,&nbsp;<code>dir1</code>&nbsp;will be renamed to&nbsp;<code>dir2</code>:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv dir1 dir2</code></pre>

<h2 id="moving-multiple-files-and-directories">Moving Multiple Files and Directories</h2>

<p>To move multiple files and directories, specify the files you want to move as the source. For example to move the files&nbsp;<code>file1</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>file2</code>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<code>dir1</code>&nbsp;directory you would type:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv file1 file2 dir1</code></pre>

<p>The&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command also allows you to use pattern matching. For example, to copy all pdf files from the current directory to the&nbsp;<code>~/Documents</code>&nbsp;directory you would use:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv *.pdf ~/Documents</code></pre>

<h2 id="mv-command-options">mv Command Options</h2>

<p>The&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command accepts options that affect default command behavior. In some Linux distributions&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;may be an&nbsp;<strong>alias</strong>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command with a custom set of options. For example in CentOS&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;is an alias to&nbsp;<code>mv -i</code>. You can find whether&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;is an alias using the&nbsp;<code>type</code>&nbsp;command:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>type mv</code></pre>

<p>If&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;is alias the output will look something like this:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv is aliased to `mv -i'</code></pre>

<p>If you specify conflicting options, the option specified last takes precendence.</p>

<h3 id="prompt-before-overwriting">Prompt before overwriting</h3>

<p>By default if the destination file exists it will be overwritten. To prompt for confirmation use the&nbsp;<code>-i</code>&nbsp;option:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -i file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv: overwrite '/tmp/file1'?</code></pre>

<p>To overwrite the file type the character&nbsp;<code>y</code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>Y</code>.</p>

<h3 id="force-overwriting">Force overwriting</h3>

<p>If you try to overwrite a read only file the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command will prompt you whether you want to overwrite the file:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -i file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv: replace '/tmp/file1', overriding mode 0400 (r--------)? </code></pre>

<p>To avoid being prompted use the&nbsp;<code>-f</code>&nbsp;options:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -f file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<p>This option is especially useful when you need to overwrite multiple reed only file.</p>

<h3 id="do-not-overwrite-existing-files">Do not overwrite existing files</h3>

<p>The&nbsp;<code>-n</code>&nbsp;option tells&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;never to overwrite any existing file:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -f file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<p>If a&nbsp;<code>file1</code>&nbsp;exists the command above will do nothing, otherwise it will copy the file to the&nbsp;<code>/tmp</code>&nbsp;directory.</p>

<h3 id="backing-up-files">Backing up files</h3>

<p>If the destination file exists you can create a backup of it using the&nbsp;<code>-b</code>&nbsp;option:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -b file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<p>The backup file will have the same name as the original file with a tilde (<code>~</code>) appended to it.</p>

<p>Use the&nbsp;<strong>ls command</strong>&nbsp;to verify that the backup was created:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>ls /tmp/file1*</code></pre>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>/tmp/file1  /tmp/file1~</code></pre>

<h3 id="verbose-output">Verbose output</h3>

<p>Another option that can be useful is&nbsp;<code>-v</code>. When using this option the command will print the name of each moved file:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>mv -i file1 /tmp</code></pre>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>renamed 'file1' -&gt; '/tmp/file1'</code></pre>

<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>

<p>By now you should have a good understanding of how to use the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command to move files and directories. New Linux users who are intimidated by the command line can use the GUI file manager to move their files.</p>

<p>For more information about the&nbsp;<code>mv</code>&nbsp;command check the&nbsp;<a href="https://ss64.com/bash/mv.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">man page</a>.</p>

<p>If you have any question or feedback, feel free to leave a comment.</p>

Moving files and directories is one of the most basic tasks you often need to perform on a Linux system. In this tutorial, we will explain how...

How to Move Files and Directories in Linux with the mv Command - TCMHACK

How to Move Files and Directories in Linux with the mv Command

<p>When working on the command line quite often you will need to create or edit text files. Two of the most powerful and popular used command line editors are Vim and Emacs. Both of them have a steep learning curve that can be intimidating to new users. For those who need a simple editor, there is nano.</p>

<p>GNU nano is an easy to use command line text editor for Unix and Linux operating systems. It includes all the basic functionality you&rsquo;d expect from a regular text editor, like syntax highlighting, multiple buffers, search and replace with regular expression support, spellchecking, UTF-8 encoding, and more.</p>

<p>In this guide, we will cover the basics of using the nano editor including how to create and open a file, edit a file, save a file, search and replace text, cut and paste text, and more.</p>

<h2 id="installing-nano">Installing Nano</h2>

<p>Nano text editor is pre-installed on macOS and most Linux distros. To check if it is installed on your system type:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>$ nano --version</code></pre>

<p>The output will look something like this:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>Output:
GNU nano, version 2.9.3
(C) 1999-2011, 2013-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
(C) 2014-2018 the contributors to nano
Email: nano@nano-editor.org	Web: https://nano-editor.org/</code></pre>

<p>If you don&rsquo;t have nano installed on your system, you can install it using the package manager of your distribution.</p>

<h3 id="install-nano-on-ubuntu-and-debian">Install Nano on Ubuntu and Debian</h3>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>$ sudo apt install nano</code></pre>

<h3 id="install-nano-on-centos-and-fedora">Install Nano on CentOS and Fedora</h3>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>$ sudo yum install nano</code></pre>

<h2 id="opening-and-creating-files">Opening and Creating Files</h2>

<p>To open an existing file or to create a new file, type&nbsp;<code>nano</code>&nbsp;followed by the file name:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>$ nano filename</code></pre>

<p><img src="../../../../uploads/1744738994851-nano-text-editor-screenshot-1024x554.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="554"></p>
<p>This opens a new editor window and you can start editing the file.</p>

<p>At the bottom of the window, there is a list of the most basic command shortcuts to use with the nano editor.</p>

<p>All commands are prefixed with either&nbsp;<code>^</code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>M</code>&nbsp;character. The caret symbol (<code>^</code>) represents the&nbsp;<code>Ctrl</code>&nbsp;key. For example, the&nbsp;<code>^J</code>&nbsp;commands mean to press the&nbsp;<code>Ctrl</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>J</code>&nbsp;keys at the same time. The letter&nbsp;<code>M</code>&nbsp;represents the&nbsp;<code>Alt</code>&nbsp;key.</p>

<p>You can get a list of all commands by typing&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+g</code>.</p>

<p>To be able to open a file you must have read permissions to the file.</p>

<p>If you want to open a file with the cursor on a specific line and character use the following syntax:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>$ nano +line_number,character_number filename</code></pre>

<p>If you omit the&nbsp;<code>character_number</code>&nbsp;the cursor will be positioned on the first character.</p>

<h2 id="editing-files">Editing Files</h2>

<p>Unlike vi, nano is a modeless editor which means that you can start typing and editing the text immediately after opening the file.</p>

<p>To move the cursor to a specific line and character number, use the&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+_</code>command. The menu on the bottom of the screen will change. Enter the number(s) in the &ldquo;Enter line number, column number:&rdquo; field and hit&nbsp;<code>Enter</code>.</p>

<h3 id="searching-and-replacing">Searching and replacing</h3>

<p>To search for a text hit&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+w</code>, type in the search term, and press&nbsp;<code>Enter</code>. The cursor will move to the first match. To move to the next match, press&nbsp;<code>Alt+w</code>.</p>

<p>If you want to search and replace, press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+\</code>. Enter the search term and the text to be replaced with. The editor will move to the first match and ask you whether to replace it. After hitting&nbsp;<code>Y</code>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<code>N</code>&nbsp;it will move to the next match. Pressing&nbsp;<code>A</code>&nbsp;will replace all matches.</p>

<h3 id="copping-cutting-and-pasting">Copping, cutting, and pasting</h3>

<p>To select text move the cursor to the beginning of the text and press&nbsp;<code>Alt+a</code>. This will set a selection mark. Move the cursor to the end of the text you want to select using the arrow keys. The selected text will be highlighted. If you want to cancel the selection press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+6</code></p>

<p>Copy the selected text to the clipboard using the&nbsp;<code>Alt+6</code>&nbsp;command.&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+k</code>&nbsp;will cut the selected text.</p>

<p>If you want to cut whole lines simply move the cursor to the line and press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+k</code>. You can cut multiple lines by hitting&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+k</code>&nbsp;several times.</p>

<p>To paste the text move the cursor to where you want to put the text and press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+u</code>.</p>

<h2 id="saving-and-exiting">Saving and Exiting</h2>

<p>To save the changes you&rsquo;ve made to the file, press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+o</code>. If the file doesn&rsquo;t already exist, it will be created once you save it.</p>

<p>If you want to exit nano press&nbsp;<code>Ctrl+x</code>. If there are unsaved changes you&rsquo;ll be asked whether you want to save the changes.</p>

<p>To save the file you must have at write permissions to the file. If you are&nbsp;<strong>creating a new file</strong>&nbsp;you need to have write permission to the directory where the file will be created.</p>

<h2 id="customizing-nano-nanorc">Customizing Nano (nanorc)</h2>

<p>When nano is launched it reads its configuration parameters from the system-wide configuration file&nbsp;<code>/etc/nanorc</code>&nbsp;and from the user-specific files&nbsp;<code>~/.config/nano/nanorc</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>~/.nanorc</code>&nbsp;if the files are present.</p>

<p>Options specified in the user file take precedence over the global options.</p>

<p>Visit the&nbsp;<strong>nanorc</strong>&nbsp;page for a complete list of all available option.</p>

<h3 id="syntax-highlighting">Syntax Highlighting</h3>

<p>Nano ships with syntax highlighting rules for most popular file types. On most Linux systems the syntax files are stored in the&nbsp;<code>/usr/share/nano</code>&nbsp;directory and included by default in the&nbsp;<code>/etc/nanorc</code>&nbsp;configuration file.</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc"</code></pre>

<p>The easiest option to enable highlighting for a new file type, is to add the syntax highlighting rules file to the&nbsp;<code>/usr/share/nano</code>&nbsp;directory.</p>

<h2 id="set-nano-as-the-default-text-editor">Set Nano as the Default Text Editor</h2>

<p>By default on most Linux systems, the default text editor for commands such as&nbsp;<code>visudo</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://linuxize.com/post/scheduling-cron-jobs-with-crontab/"><code>crontab</code></a>&nbsp;is set to vi. To use nano as the default text editor you need to change the&nbsp;<code>VISUAL</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>EDITOR</code>&nbsp;<strong>environment variables.</strong></p>

<p>Bash users can export the variables in the&nbsp;<code>~/.bashrc</code>&nbsp;file:</p>

<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>export VISUAL=nano
export EDITOR="$VISUAL"</code></pre>

<h2 id="basic-nano-usage">Basic Nano Usage</h2>

<p>Below are the most basic steps for getting started with nano:</p>

<ol>
<li>On the command prompt, type&nbsp;<code>nano</code>&nbsp;followed by the filename.</li>
<li>Edit the file as required.</li>
<li>Use the&nbsp;<code>Ctrl-x</code>&nbsp;command to save and exit the text editor.</li>
</ol>

<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>

<p>In this tutorial, we have shown you how to use Gnu nano text editor. It is a popular text editor among Linux users and has a small learning curve.</p>

<p>For more information about Gnu Nano visit the official&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nano-editor.org/docs.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">nano documentation</a>page.</p>

When working on the command line quite often you will need to create or edit text files. Two of the most powerful and popular used command line e...

How to Use Nano, the Command Line Text Editor in Linux - TCMHACK

How to Use Nano, the Command Line Text Editor in Linux

<p>This tutorial will help you to clone a specific git branch from the remote git repository via command line.</p>



<h2>Syntax:</h2>



<p>You need to specify the branch name with&nbsp;<strong>-b</strong>&nbsp;command switch. Here is the syntax of the command to clone the specific git branch.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">git clone -b &lt;BRANCH_NAME&gt;  &lt;GIT_REMOTE_URL&gt;
</pre>



<h2>Example:</h2>



<p>The following command will clone the branch 5.1-branch from the WordPress git repository.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">git clone <strong>-b 5.1-branch</strong> https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git
</pre>



<p>The above command clones only the specific branch but fetches the details of other branches. You can view all branches details with command&nbsp;<code>git branch -a</code>.</p>



<p>You can use&nbsp;<code>--single-branch</code>&nbsp;to prevent fetching details of other branches like below:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">git clone -b 5.1-branch <strong>--single-branch</strong> https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git
</pre>



<p>All done. You can view the currently active branch by running the command:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">git branch</pre>

This tutorial will help you to clone a specific git branch from the remote git repository via command line.



Syntax:



You need to specify the...

How to Move Files and Directories in Linux with the mv Command

How to Use Nano, the Command Line Text Editor in Linux

How to Clone Specific Git Branch from Remote Repository