How to move multiple files at once to a specific destination directory?

Question

I got a bunch of files in some directory (along with many other files) that I want to move.

Luckily, all the files I want to move contain a certain identifier in their names, so I can ls | grep IDENTIFIER to get the exact list of files to move.

But, how can I execute mv file /path/to/dest/folder/ at once, and not one by one (there's a lot of files to move)?

score 317 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 05 '21 at 09:35

317

You could use:

mv -t DESTINATION file1 file2 file3

The following also works, but I'm not sure if mv is invoked multiple times or not, as grep will output a new line for each match:

mv -t DESTINATION  `ls|grep IDENTIFIER`

edited Jul 05 '21 at 09:35

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Nov 14 '12 at 11:07

tuomaz

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works on linux, not sure if it will work on mac – Alexander Mills Dec 10 '16 at 20:25
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works on mac and git bash via git for windwows. – Brandt Solovij Feb 23 '17 at 12:55
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Does not work on Mac (10.11.16 El Capitan). But you can simply put the target folder at the back, i.e. mv file1 file2 ... destination – Jonathan H Jul 23 '17 at 15:29
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-1 for second approach as it will fall for files including new lines – αғsнιη Sep 07 '17 at 15:33
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Why you shouldn't parse the output of ls. – dessert Dec 01 '17 at 09:42
Ah, from man mv, this now makes sense!: mv [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY SOURCE... One target dir; multiple sources--hence the ... after SOURCE. – Gabriel Staples May 03 '22 at 23:29
expanding to @JonathanH: if you do mv a b -t dir on Apple OS you get mv: rename -t to dir/-t: No such file or directory but it works;) – Timo Feb 01 '24 at 16:13

Evandro Silva · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-11T17:07:03.743

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If you want to move ABC-IDENTIFIER-XYZ.ext or IDENTIFIER-XYZ.xml, you can use:

mv *IDENTIFIER* ~/YourPath/

* is a wildcard for zero or more characters, this means zero or more characters, followed by IDENTIFIER, followed by zero or more characters.

This will move all the files that contain the IDENTIFIER you specified.

edited Nov 11 '12 at 17:07

answered Nov 08 '12 at 13:33

Evandro Silva

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score 36 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 05 '21 at 09:39

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You can use wildcards.

Fore example, to move all files having a .doc extension:

mv *.doc /path/to/dest/folder/

This will move all doc file under the current directory to the specific destination.

Edit

To answer the comment:

but the list of files to move is not determined by extension. some of the files are named: ABC-IDENTIFIER-XYZ.ext and some just IDENTIFIER-XYZ.ext all having different extensions, mostly xml or properties.

mv *.ext  *.xml *.txt /path/to/dest/folder/

edited Jul 05 '21 at 09:39

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Nov 08 '12 at 13:21

Achu

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but the list of files to move is not determined by extension. some of the files are named: ABC-IDENTIFIER-XYZ.ext and some just IDENTIFIER-XYZ.ext all having different extensions, mostly xml or properties. – gilad hoch Nov 08 '12 at 13:25
@giladhoch How about the edited one? – Achu Nov 08 '12 at 13:36
@gliadhoch If you are so comfortable using grep, you can see my answer above/below. – ignite Nov 08 '12 at 13:47
won't work since there are other .xml files (for instance) i do'nt want to move. – gilad hoch Nov 08 '12 at 13:50

score 34 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 24 '21 at 15:33

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If you want to move a set of arbitrary files (no common pattern in the names and types) you can do as Mr. Rajanand said: first go to the directory that contains the files you want to move

mv file1.ext1 file2.ext2 file3.ext3 /destination/

In case the files are scattered in different directories, you only need to specify the path for each file in the mv command.

edited Aug 24 '21 at 15:33

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Mar 26 '14 at 04:03

Ismail AL-taharwa

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Sruli · Answer 5 · 2017-12-01T11:22:58.080

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If the files are in the same dir you can use

mv /path/to/source/dir/{file1,file2,*.ext1,*.ext2} /path/to/destination/

(tested in Ubuntu 16.04)

edited Dec 01 '17 at 11:22

answered Dec 01 '17 at 09:19

Sruli

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just eliminates the need to specify full path to dir for each file – Sruli Dec 01 '17 at 11:22
+1 very intuitive, exactly what's needed! Tested to work on Ubuntu 20.04. – mirekphd Jun 15 '22 at 11:20

score 14 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 20 '15 at 16:11

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I use tuomaz's technique, but slightly modified:

mv file1 file2 file3 -t DESTINATION

I find this easier to remember and harder to screw up since it uses the same ordering as the vanilla mv operation:

mv file1 DESTINATION

answered Jan 20 '15 at 16:11

Blake Frederick

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ignite · Answer 7 · 2012-11-13T18:18:06.910

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Use this command:

mv `ls|grep IDENTIFIER` /path/to/dest/folder

However, ls is not recommended for this kind of use. Use find command instead.

edited Nov 13 '12 at 18:18

answered Nov 08 '12 at 13:44

ignite

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ls is not recommended for this kind of use. If you want to list files, especially with a grep behind, use find . -name \*IDENTIFIER\*. – NorTicUs Nov 08 '12 at 13:48
This answer was just to demonstrate how you can use the output of previous command in mv. As ls|grep was mentioned in the question, I just copied it. – ignite Nov 08 '12 at 13:50
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As stated by @NorTicUs, the use of ls is ill advised. Also, files with spaces could cause a problem. – Paddy Landau Nov 13 '12 at 14:27
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don't parse ls – Zanna Sep 07 '17 at 15:15

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 07 '17 at 15:12

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find -type f -name "[range]" -exec mv {} target-directory ';'

this command will move file names with any pattern/range to target-directory.

eg.

find -type f -name "file[1-50000]" -exec mv {} target-directory ';'

it will move files with names like file1, file2 ... file50000 to target-directory.

edited Sep 07 '17 at 15:12

Zanna

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answered Sep 07 '17 at 14:51

user734124

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given the example in the question, I just want to put a note here on character classes - [range] (literally) will match r or a or n or g or e, so [IDENTIFIER] (whatever OP's identifier is) would probably not do the thing expected. Better to run find without -exec first to see what files will be operated on. – Zanna Aug 24 '21 at 16:15

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 06 '18 at 01:26

4

Easiest way is like this

mv {file1,file2,file3} DESTINATION

or directory

mv {directory1,directory2,directory3} DESTINATION

or both files and directories

mv {file1,file2,file3,directory1,directory2,directory3} DESTINATION

Hope this helps

answered Nov 06 '18 at 01:26

Sabrina

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score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 14 '12 at 10:05

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If you have so many files to move you can actually have too many for the mv command (or other commands like rm). I suggest using xargs to move each file individually in a loop like fashion. One way to get around that is to do:

ls -1 | grep IDENTIFIER | xargs -i mv {} /path/to/dest/folder/

The ls -1 (minus one) ensures that there is only one filename on each line. If you have hidden aliases for the ls command you can have multiple filenames on a single line and inadvertently move a file you did not intend to move.

answered Nov 14 '12 at 10:05

AggieBill

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This is also useful when your IDENTIFIER is not easily turned into a wildcard, or you want to use grep with a more complex regex. – AggieBill Nov 14 '12 at 10:11
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+1 for xargs. find is almost always better and safer than ls. find . IDENTIFIER -exec mv {} /path/to/dest/folder ; (untested code) The . is for the current working directory. The ; is to end the command to be executed. Depending on what you're doing, you might have to add a -maxdepth 1 to keep it from recursing into subdirectories. – Joe Nov 14 '12 at 23:33
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getting illegal option -i on mac os – james-see Sep 28 '20 at 14:38
On MacOS 11.4 this works ls -1 | grep IDENTIFIER | xargs -I % mv % /path/to/dest/folder/ – shinwan Dec 24 '21 at 11:00

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:25

3

You can use find and -exec like this:

find . -name "Identifier" -exec echo mv {} <destination_path> \;

edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:25

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered May 18 '20 at 08:13

Mano Sriram

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maybe "*identifier*"? – Zanna Aug 24 '21 at 16:11
find . -name "Identifier" -exec mv {} <destination_path> ; – alireza Jan 30 '22 at 12:38

score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:24

2

You can use the output of ls as input to the mv commnad:

mv $(ls | grep IDENTIFIER) /path/to/dest/dir

The command between $() returns a list of the file names matching your search, and that can be provided as a parameter for the mv command.

edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:24

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Nov 13 '12 at 19:38

Fuad Saud

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don't parse ls – Zanna Sep 07 '17 at 15:14

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:24

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Using this command you can move multiple files:

mv SourceFilenames ~DestinationPath

edited Aug 24 '21 at 07:24

BeastOfCaerbannog

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answered Nov 14 '12 at 10:13

Rajanand Ilangovan

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered May 17 '20 at 08:33

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If you are using fish shell most things are fortunate. So it simple goes like this, just key in the destination as the last file.

mv file1 file2 file3 DESTINATION

answered May 17 '20 at 08:33

nehem

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this is just the normal mv syntax... the shell is not doing anything – Zanna Aug 24 '21 at 15:20

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Oct 01 '22 at 08:47

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Run this below command it will move all files

mv * DestinationPath

edited Oct 01 '22 at 08:47

Tejas Lotlikar

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answered Sep 12 '22 at 11:22

Rohit Brijwasi

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This is already included in the other answers. – Artur Meinild Sep 13 '22 at 05:48

How to move multiple files at once to a specific destination directory?

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