move many directories to another directory using CLI

Question

I want to copy some of the directories in a directory to another directory in that directory itself.

For Example:

I have the structure like the below

myname@compname:~/root/app/pages$ ls

dir1, dir2, dir3

I want the dir1 and dir2 to be moved into dir3 and the final structure has to be as the following:

myname@compname:~/root/app/pages$ ls

dir3

myname@compname:~/root/app/pages/dir3$ ls

dir1, dir2

I know the there are many shell programs for it. but I want this to happen using the CLI itself in just a single lined statement.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 21 '16 at 06:06

1

mv dir1 dir2 dir3

will do it

mv dir1 dir2
mv dir2 dir3

does the same thing, in two steps.

Technically mv dir[123] would also do the same thing (for these file names), but would potentially be confusing as the destination is determined alphabetically

answered Jul 21 '16 at 06:06

Jasen

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Yes! Thanks for your concern. But I'm asking this in case of 100s of Directories! – gsthina Jul 21 '16 at 06:21
for hundereds `mv * dir3` – Jasen Jul 21 '16 at 06:26
`*` is for all the dirs. But I want the specific 100s of dir – gsthina Jul 21 '16 at 06:32
you have to say which ones somehow, – Jasen Jul 21 '16 at 06:36
so, any way to exclude a dir? – gsthina Jul 21 '16 at 06:39
1

not easily. it's easier to move it back afterwards. – Jasen Jul 21 '16 at 06:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 06:01

This is not the perfect answer. But i have done the above with the following code:

myname@compname:~/root/app/pages$ cp -r dir1/ dir3/ && cp -r dir2/ dir3/
myname@compname:~/root/app/pages$ rm -r dir1 && rm -r dir2
myname@compname:~/root/app/pages$ cd dir3 && ls

move many directories to another directory using CLI

2 Answers2