hi all
i'm a bit confused.

ok, i'm in the dir "/data/temp/new/"
and i want to move all the files in this drive to "/data/etc/multimedia/"
i've done "mv * /data/etc/multimedia/" and he asks me if i want to overwrite the directory /data/etc/multimedia

what did i do wrong?
how can i move all the files from the folder i'm in to another folder on the hard drive?

i've checked "man mv" but i can't seem to find this exact problem.

thnx

mv /data/temp/new/* /data/etc/multimedia

You don't need to be in the directory of the files you wish to move. As long as you know where they are and where they need to go, you can use the mv command.

The 'mv' command has the effect of re-naming files as well as moving the file to a different location. So, what that means is you have to use a name in the source file.

Say, for example you had files file1.mp3 file2.mp3 and file3.mp3 in the source directory. You want to move all in one command...

'mv /data/temp/new/*.mp3 /data/etc/multimedia/' should move all files with the extension of .mp3 to the destination directory and erase all copies in the source directory. They should keep the same permissions, and file names.

Move can be a little dangerous, so until you are sure of what you are doing, you could use the -i option. Mv will then prompt you on each move. A little safer...

You can also do this kind of thing with a graphical file manager. Knoqueror Krusader and Nautlius just to name three that will do what you want.

This is very true, as an extra precaution you could use the cp (copy) command instead. If all copies correctly delete the source files after.