Moving and Renaming

Moving and Renaming Files

mv (move) moves a file to a new location. If the destination is in the same directory, it renames the file.

Renaming a File

mv hello.txt greet.txt

This renames hello.txt to greet.txt. The original hello.txt no longer exists.

Moving to a Different Directory

mv notes.txt docs/

This moves notes.txt into the docs directory.

Moving and Renaming Simultaneously

mv hello.txt docs/greeting.txt

This moves hello.txt into docs/ and renames it to greeting.txt at the same time.

Moving Multiple Files

mv file1.txt file2.txt target-dir/

When the last argument is a directory, all preceding arguments are moved into it.

Key Difference from cp

mv does not make a copy — the original is gone. This is especially relevant when moving across filesystems (then mv copies and deletes).

Your Task

Rename hello.txt to greet.txt, then list the directory to confirm the rename.