How to move all files in current folder to subfolder?

Question

I am at the path:

/myuser/downloads/

And I create a sub folder:

/myuser/downloads/new

Now I want to move all files and folders/sub-folders in the downloads folder to the sub-folder.

how can I do this?

I tried:

mv -R *.* new/

But move doesn't take the -R switch it seems.

You do not need -R. Just mv * new Though, it will whine "cannot move new to new" or something similar. Perhaps mv -i * new to you prevent overwrites.

enzotib · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-31 16:37:41Z

up vote 3 down vote accepted

The command

mv !(new) new

should do the trick. If it doesn't work, run shopt -s extglob first.

To also move hidden files/directories (that beginning with a dot), run also shopt -s dotglob first.
So, to sum up:

shopt -s extglob dotglob
mv !(new) new
shopt -u dotglob

(it is always better to unset dotglob to avoid bad surprises).

edited Dec 31 '11 at 16:37

answered Dec 31 '11 at 12:57

enzotib
24.3k13469

Thanks fro your info. It works for me.for an long time i looking for it. – Mughil Jan 1 '12 at 12:24

1 Answer