how to rename a file in a directory using current directory

Question

I want to rename a file (home/Desktop/ali/a/b.txt)

I wrote a bash file

#!/bin/bash

mv a/b.txt a/c.txt

and put it in ali directory,I navigate to ali directory in terminal but when I execute the bash file it can't find a/b.txt

I know mv home/Desktop/ali/a/b.txt home/Desktop/ali/a/c.txt will work fine, but is there any way to use current directory to shorten the addressing?

you can use brace expansion... `mv home/Desktop/folder2/a/{b,c}.txt` .. not sure about what you mean by using current directory — Sundeep, Jun 18 '17 at 08:44
I mean since I am in "ali" directory in the terminal, is there any way that my script find a/b.txt without giving full address in the script(home/Desktop/folder2/a/b.txt)? — mohammad reza, Jun 18 '17 at 10:27
If you are in *"ali"* directory, you will see that you can indeed use a shortened path if you do `ls -l a/b.txt` — Mark Setchell, Jun 18 '17 at 12:08
Thanks for your response! so I should try: mv ls -l a/b.txt a/c.txt ? — mohammad reza, Jun 19 '17 at 03:47
I don't want to use the full address(home/Desktop/ali/a), since my working directory is ali, I want to use shorten version,like a/b.txt — mohammad reza, Jun 19 '17 at 04:31

TheoB · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-19T06:02:50.147

0

If you want to mv a local file, just leave the dir blank:

mv a/test.py a/test1.py

Anyway you can use pwd for that, but keep in mind that you need to run the script in the same dir!

mv `pwd`/a/test.py `pwd`/a/test1.py

edited Jun 19 '17 at 06:02

answered Jun 19 '17 at 05:45

TheoB

141
7

Thanks for your response! It's exactly what i wanted and it works fine. – mohammad reza Jun 19 '17 at 07:10

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 19 '17 at 05:51

You don't need to provide the location if you are in that directory.

For example you have file A in desktop so you navigate there and do:

mv A B

File A was renamed to B in that directory

But if you want to do so from another location then you do

mv directory/A directory/newfilename

Bhanupal Singh Rathore · Answer 3 · 2017-11-10T07:10:28.247

0

if you run script from Ali directory then your mv statement seems like

mv `pwd`/a/test.py `pwd`/a/test1.py

or

mv ./a/test.py ./a/test1.py

edited Nov 10 '17 at 07:10

answered Jun 19 '17 at 09:56

Bhanupal Singh Rathore

84
9

how to rename a file in a directory using current directory

3 Answers3