Lessons · Terminal · moving and renaming
Moving and renaming are one command
mv old new renames a file. mv file folder/ moves it into the folder. Either way there is one file afterwards, not two.
Hone is a place to practise programming. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Renaming a draft to final, moving finished work into a done folder: mv is the tidy-up command.
How to think about it
If the last argument is an existing folder, it is a move into it; otherwise it is a rename to that name.
Worked example
echo x > draft.txtA draft.
mv draft.txt final.txtRenamed.
lsfinal.txt only.
mkdir done && mv final.txt done/Moved into a folder.
ls donefinal.txt is there now.
Your turn
Rename report.txt to report-2026.txt.
report.txt report-2026.txt
Try it at a real prompt
The trap
mv onto a name that exists replaces that file silently. There is no trash can on the command line.
Practise moving and renaming on HoneA question on it now, a coding challenge where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.