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How to move files in Linux using ls?

Moving files to organize or to simply archive is part of a sysadmin life.

In Linux, ls -1 (number one not small letter L) command means list the files but only show the filenames.

The output of ls -1 can be utilized as an input to mv to move the files, since mv requires a filename to be move plus a destination where to move the files.

Here's a simple command to do it with a few parameters of course:

         ls -1 | xargs -d '\n' -I {} mv -- {} /path/to/destination/

Above move whatever files it can find on the path; where the command is run and it's a command that will also move files even though it has space or tab on the filename of the files.

Below is a revised command to move all .txt files on the current directory or on the path where the command is executed.

         ls -1 *.txt | xargs -d '\n' -I {} mv -- {} ./archive_folder/

The mv --, the -- is a safety precaution or a mechanism in order not to misinterpret any filenames with dashes, for example if there is a file like:

-file.txt; mv can misbehave or fail because -file.txt can be treated as a parameter for the mv command but with -- mv is safe.

It's important to always test the command on a dummy environment before running on the production, even though the command is self-explanatory; it's a good practice to test it to make sure it will work the way it is expected and no other surprising scenarios.

Here's a screenshot on how I test the above command:



That's it, keep learning and enjoy doing task on command line.





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