I got the '-r' for cp but not for mv.

How could I recursively move directories and content?

Cheers

When you "move" a directory (i.e. unlink it and link it somewhere else), all its contents go with it, right? (Am I missing something here?)

"cp" is different in that by default it only copies files, and you need "-r" for it to copy directories.

Every time I've moved a directory, it's taken all its contents with it.

recursive option has been implemented for mv only partially. It is possible to move a source directory and its contents to a destination directory if there is no directory with the same name as source in the destination. Otherwise it complains "mv SOURCE to TARGET; unable to remove target: Is a directory". Apparently the mv command is too stupid to know that there is a possibility to skip removing the target and instead continue on moving the contents recursively. This makes people like me upset as there is no other simple command-line solution to achieve exactly the same behaviour.

Simple enough?
By the way, the GNU tools are open source, if you really need that function just because you don't want to use to commands for that functionality feel free to extent the mv command.

"cp -r $SOURCE $DESTINATION && rm -r $SOURCE" is not a good option when you want to move big directories between different computers, which take long and there might be interruption. you are right nevertheless, for the moment I complained so that if somebody is more expert and has the time to do it ;-).

Edit:
This option is already implemented in nautilus, which is gpl licenced as well. It asks if you want to merge the folders or not, and there is a apply-to-all check-box. But one have to dig into the codes to transfer the functionality to the mv command

If you are worrying about interruptions substitute cp with rsync in that command, it copies only files that are different and can use compression if needed (and appliable).
mv and cp are simply not the right tools for that.

Thank you very much for your help. The rsync command, specially when used with --remove-source-files option does exactly what I want. (well hopefully, haven't tested it yet)