169
votes
how to rename multiple files by replacing string in file name? this string contains a "#"
To replace # by somethingelse for filenames in the current directory (not recursive) you can use the (Perl-)rename utility:
rename 's/#/somethingelse/' *
Characters like - must be escaped with a \.
...
- 1,893
112
votes
Accepted
After accidentally renaming /usr, how do I rename it back?
Since you have set a password for root, use su and busybox, installed by default in Ubuntu. All of su's required libraries are in /lib. Busybox is a collection of utilities that's statically linked, ...
- 71.2k
102
votes
Accepted
mv: Move file only if destination does not exist
mv -vn file1 file2. This command will do what you want. You can skip -v if you want.
-v makes it verbose - mv will tell you that it moved file if it moves it(useful, since there is possibility that ...
- 6,906
101
votes
Adding unzipped files to a zipped folder
Use the update flag: -u
Example:
zip -ur existing.zip myFolder
This command will compress and add myFolder (and it's contents) to the existing.zip.
Advanced Usage:
The update flag actually ...
- 1,111
90
votes
Accepted
I've just "mv"ed a 49GB directory to a bad file path, is it possible to restore the original state of the files?
When moving files between filesystems, mv doesn't delete a file before it's finished copying it, and it processes files sequentially (I initially said it copies then deletes each file in turn, but ...
- 423k
82
votes
I lost files by using the "mv" command and I don't know where they are!
You created a directory called tp2 in your home directory, i.e. you created the directory ~/tp2. You then changed into ~/Downloads/221-tp2-public-main and started to move files with mv.
Since you ...
- 327k
74
votes
Accepted
renaming a huge folder: is it risky?
Changing the name on a folder is safe, if it stays within the same file system.
If it is a mount point (/data kinda looks like it could be a mount point to me, check this with mount), then you need ...
- 327k
73
votes
Accepted
Why is mv so much faster than cp? How do I recover from an incorrect mv command?
If a directory is moved within the same filesystem (the same partition), then all that is needed is to rename the file path of the directory. No data apart from the directory entry for the directory ...
- 327k
71
votes
Why do I get permission denied when using mv although directory rights are correct?
I was using Windows Subsystem for Linux. I had the directory open in a different bash instance. Closing it let me move the directory.
- 809
67
votes
Accepted
How can I copy a directory and rename it in the same command?
You should be able to do just
cp -R /tf/Custom_App /tf/Custom_App_backups/Custom_App_2017-12-21
However, if the target directory already exists, this would append the final part of the source path ...
- 135k
55
votes
how to rename multiple files by replacing string in file name? this string contains a "#"
find the list of files and then replace keyword.
below is example
find . -name '*jpg' -exec bash -c ' mv $0 ${0/\#U00a9NBC/safeNBC}' {} \;
- 659
50
votes
Accepted
How can I change a file to a directory? Files lost after find+mv
Adding a slash at the end of the destination path /opt/alfresco/archived/2020-01-07 would have made the mv command error out, as the 2020-01-07 directory evidently does not exist. This would have ...
- 327k
49
votes
Accepted
What is the point of mv -f when default behavior already overwrites files?
The usage of -f is more clearly described in the man page from 4BSD, which was where the -f and -i options were added:
If file2 already exists, it is removed before file1 is moved. If file2 has a ...
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48
votes
Accepted
Best practice to continue mv
Forget about trying to reinvent rsync, and use rsync.
sudo rsync -av /location/to/drive1/ /location/to/drive2/
Make sure you use a trailing slash on the source, otherwise it would copy to /location/...
47
votes
Solving "mv: Argument list too long"?
If working with Linux kernel is enough you can simply do
ulimit -S -s unlimited
That will work because Linux kernel included a patch around 10 years ago that changed argument limit to be based on ...
- 3,989
46
votes
Using mv command to move a file from one folder to another one - Strange example
TL;DR
This forces the destination to be a directory that already exists or the command to fail without effect and is used as a fail-safe.
The meaning of .
Every directory in typical Unix/Unix-like ...
- 33.4k
39
votes
how to rename multiple files by replacing string in file name? this string contains a "#"
To escape # from the shell, just use single quotes ('#'), double quotes ("#"), or backslash (\#).
The simplest in your case would be to use the rename command (if it is available):
rename '#U00a9' ...
- 1,332
38
votes
How to integrate mv command after find command?
For the benefit of OS X users coming across this question, the syntax in OS X is slightly different. Assuming you do not want to search recursively in subdirectories of path_A:
find path_A -maxdepth ...
- 481
36
votes
Accepted
Accidentally renamed tar.gz file to a non tar.gz file, will my file be messed up
Your file will be fine.
Renaming a file will not alter the file's contents in any way whatsoever.
In fact, you would still be able to successfully extract the contents of your compressed tar archive ...
- 327k
35
votes
Moved /bin contents to /usr/bin, possible to undo?
On Linux (and on most other systems, though POSIX doesn't give you that guarantee unless the move was across file systems), that would have updated their ctime, so assuming none of the other ones in /...
- 533k
35
votes
Accepted
How to mv .bin bin
If you still have a root shell open, run
cd /
/.bin/mv .bin bin
Your shell can’t find mv because it’s no longer on the path; giving the full path to it will allow it to run.
(As a general rule, it’...
- 423k
35
votes
After accidentally renaming /usr, how do I rename it back?
In addition to muru's answer:
you could have used some rescue boot USB key to repair your system; e.g. if your system is some Debian or Ubuntu, boot the installation USB key in rescue mode, and do ...
- 10.4k
31
votes
Accepted
A filename has an asterisk for some reason - it won't be changed and content not executed
The asterisk is not actually part of the filename. You are seeing it because the file is executable and your alias for ll includes the -F flag:
-F
Display a slash ('/') immediately ...
- 36.4k
30
votes
How can I move all `marked` files to another directory in ranger?
With the files / directories marked, press dd, then navigate to the directory you want to paste them in and press p.
- 5,508
30
votes
Accepted
mv: rename <oldname> to <newname>/<oldname>: Invalid argument
The filesystem on your NAS is case-insensitive¹, so OldHDD and oldhdd are the same file. But your operating system is case-sensitive, so it considers those different names. The mv command asks the ...
28
votes
Why do I get permission denied when using mv although directory rights are correct?
Do note that, when in folder a, moving b to c, the folder permissions of a determine what you can do.
In this case, the permissions on . will be most important.
Observe that the permissions are more ...
- 1,451
28
votes
Accepted
Change a directory name in a Github repository remotely, directly from local Linux Git?
The fatal error message indicates you’re working from somewhere that’s not a clone of your git repository. So let’s start by cloning the git repository first:
git clone https://github.com/benqzq/...
- 423k
28
votes
I lost files by using the "mv" command and I don't know where they are!
The GNU implementation of the mv command (the one found on Ubuntu) has an explicit mv -t myDir option that checks that myDir is specifically an existing directory. This avoids the ambiguity between mv ...
- 8,431
25
votes
Accepted
bash: moving files with spaces
Never, ever use for foo in $(cat bar). This is a classic mistake, commonly known as bash pitfall number 1. You should instead use:
while IFS= read -r file; do mv -- "$file" "new_place/$file"; done &...
- 238k
24
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between 'rename' and 'mv'?
It's basically what it says on the lid, for both.
mv is a standard utility to move one or more files to a given target. It can be used to rename a file, if there's only one file to move. If there are ...
- 135k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible