Error: `mv olddir/ newdir/ ` no longer works on new version of bash?

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 01:40 PM

Suppose you have a directory called "olddir" exists but no "newdir", you want to rename "olddir" to"newdir"
In previous versions (at least in 2.05b.0) of bash, you can try
mv olddir/ newdir/
OR
mv olddir/ newdir

But in new versions of bash, if you
mv olddir/ newdir/
BASH panics:
mv: target `newdir/' is not a directory: No such file or directory

Anybody notices this?

forrestt · 02-20-2008, 02:02 PM

What is the output of "which mv"? I'm not getting this error from bash or tcsh. However, I suspect that mv may be what is having issues.

Code:

% bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.33(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
% mv --version
mv (GNU coreutils) 6.9
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Mike Parker, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.

Are you actually using "newdir" and "olddir"? I suspect that if you try these you won't have any issues and that the directories that you are actually using are what is causing mv to bomb (e.g. you may not be able to write to "newdir").

HTH

Forrest

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 02:08 PM

Thank you. Here are all the info:

$ ls
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-02-20 12:03 olddir

$ mv olddir/ newdir/
mv: target `newdir/' is not a directory: No such file or directory

$ which mv
/bin/mv

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.13(1)-release (i486-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

What is the output of "which mv"? I'm not getting this error from bash or tcsh. However, I suspect that mv may be what is having issues.

Code:

% bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.33(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
% mv --version
mv (GNU coreutils) 6.9
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Mike Parker, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.

Are you actually using "newdir" and "olddir"? I suspect that if you try these you won't have any issues and that the directories that you are actually using are what is causing mv to bomb (e.g. you may not be able to write to "newdir").

HTH

Forrest

b0uncer · 02-20-2008, 02:17 PM

I tried those commands (exactly), and got no problems. Also tried to move a directory where I didn't have write permissions, but that clearly said that I did not have permissions, not that the file didn't exist like in the above example. So it makes me wonder..

mv is from GNU coreutils, version 6.9, bash is GNU bash, 3.2.17

forrestt · 02-20-2008, 02:27 PM

And what do you get with "ls -lad ." from within the directory holding olddir?

Forrest

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

And what do you get with "ls -lad ." from within the directory holding olddir?

Forrest

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-02-20 12:03 .

forrestt · 02-20-2008, 03:12 PM

Well, if you are running the command as root, then it should work. If not it should give you:

mv: cannot move `newdir/' to `olddir/': Permission denied

Perhaps there was a bug in that version of coreutils. Try upgrading it and see if it goes away.

HTH

Forrest

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 03:45 PM

Even I am as root it still doesn't work with new version bash.

BTW the exact syntax works with my another machine, which has bash version:

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i386-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

Well, if you are running the command as root, then it should work. If not it should give you:

mv: cannot move `newdir/' to `olddir/': Permission denied

Perhaps there was a bug in that version of coreutils. Try upgrading it and see if it goes away.

HTH

Forrest

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 03:48 PM

If this is a bug, or possible bug, where can I report it?
Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

Well, if you are running the command as root, then it should work. If not it should give you:

mv: cannot move `newdir/' to `olddir/': Permission denied

Perhaps there was a bug in that version of coreutils. Try upgrading it and see if it goes away.

HTH

Forrest

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 03:58 PM

BTW, how to check my coreutils's version?

forrestt · 02-20-2008, 04:39 PM

What distro are you running?

meili100 · 02-20-2008, 04:52 PM

one is debian
another is ubuntu

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

What distro are you running?

forrestt · 02-20-2008, 05:06 PM

I'm not a Debian/Ubuntu guru, but try "apt-get -V coreutils". The command may be different, I'm not sure. I don't have either of those distros handy to try.

HTH

Forrest