How do I move or rename a directory or file?

petulia3478

The "mv" command has two purposes, one, to move a file or directory to another location under the UNIX directory structure, and two, to rename a file or directory.

To move a file or directory

$ mv "name of your file" "new location of file"
eg:
$ mv filelist /var/tmp

For directories, it's the same

$ mv "name of directory" "new location of directory"
eg:
$ mv olddir /var/tmp

To rename a file or directory

$ mv oldfile newfile
or
$ mv olddir newdir