Renaming files with mv without typing the name two times (opens in new tab)

The important point though, is that one of the solutions moves you closer to a common language with other posix users, and one moves you farther away. If you use the tools the way they're intended to be used (brace expansion, for example), you'll recognize it when other people use it. You'll understand similar brace expansions in other commands you see others craft. You won't need to remember if that shell you sudo'd into uses your override or not. The reasons go on forever.

It really isn't necessary. That's not to say someone can't think of a reason for it, but rather that there are better ways to do what it does.

  $ echo mv foo{x,y}bar

Easily done right in the command line. First, type this:

  $ mv oldname _ 

Now erase the last word using Ctrl-W:

  $ mv _

  $ mv oldname oldname _

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854475

  mv foo.txt 
  ↑
  Alt-.

OK, then just use !#$ (the last word of the current command) and press CTRL + ALT + e to expand it into the actual value.

Heaven forbid someone share knowledge. Let's interpret as uncharitably as possible and passive-aggressively love/hate.

> Brace expansion doesn't do that, doesn't show you the new filename before you commit the name change

Allow me to rush to demonstrate my zsh knowledge for any passersby who might benefit:

% mv foo-bar-{bar,baz}.txt|[TAB]

% mv foo-bar-bar.txt foo-bar-baz.txt

It's unfortunate that you reach for the uncharitable explanation first. To return the favor, I assume you rushed to post your reply because you think being contrarian and chastising the top-rated comment will get you more karma points? See, that wouldn't be cool... of course I don't actually believe that. While I don't agree with you, I assume you're arguing in good faith!

The simple fact is that I just don't see the need for it; after many years of heavy command-line use, I wouldn't use a tool like this. Either the simple case is sufficient, or I need something much more advanced, like prefix/suffix/regex replacement across multiple files (in which case shell variable expansion will often work, or I'll reach for `sed`). Beyond that, I try to avoid getting used to tools that only exist on my machine, and not on the tens of machines I ssh to weekly. (I already sometimes find myself, for example, attempting to use ripgrep on remote hosts that don't have it, and it's annoying.)

If you look downthread a bit, there are several comments that expand on doing it the "built-in" way that covers the original use case even more. For example:

Type "mv foo.txt" -> hit ctrl+w (cut word) -> hit ctrl+y (paste word) twice -> use arrow keys to edit.

Someone else mentioned fish will expand braces if you hit the <tab> key.

There are so many cool built-in things that the shell can already do for you; writing up a hacky solution that only works for one use case (the methods mentioned above work for mv, cp, ls, etc.) is limiting your learning and wasting your time.

> It may very well be necessary for someone else.

I really wish people would understand that when people make statements like I did, there's an implicit "for me" or "in my experience" tacked onto the end of that. Yes, obviously, people have different needs, and yes, obviously, I am talking about my own personal experience and needs. But I really do think that shell brace expansion covers the 90% case, and I was under the -- perhaps mistaken -- impression that the OP may not have known about it, or realize how it can be useful in this particular context. I knew about this sort of shell expansion for many years before I saw someone using it to do a file rename, and it was a big "wow, how have I never thought of that?" moment for me at the time; I expect that sort of thing happens to a lot of people.

In the cases where you need to do interactive edits of file names, something like emacs or mc is probably less error prone than bash.

Renaming via bash expansion has the additional advantage that it's script-friendly.

The real question is: why move files at all?

  mv file.name !#:1.bak
  cp process.log !#:1.old

  mv file file.bak; mv file.new file

  eval mv file{,{.bak\;mv\ ,.new},}

    $ echo {A,B}
    A B
    $ echo {A,B}{C,D}
    AC AD BC BD
    $ echo {A,B}{C,D}{E,F}
    ACE ACF ADE ADF BCE BCF BDE BDF

    mv foo-bar-{baz,quux}.txt

    mv foo-bar-baz.txt foo-bar-quux.txt

Unlike *, ? [a-z] ...

https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Brace-Exp...

Importantly, realize it's a feature of Bash that deals with strings, not a feature of mv that deals with filenames. It just replaces a word containing a brace expression with a set of words that contain each pattern in the list.

In general, though, I wish that terminals and text editors that do nice things like syntax highlighting and autocomplete supported help text better. Perhaps selecting some text and hovering with your mouse or hitting F1 could bring up a minimal syntax example of the feature you're looking at...

This syntax is no more obscure than a link in markdown, for example.

If you don't use it frequently, your are likely to forget it and it's not worth optimizing.

GNU Readline's key bindings for Ctrl-W and Ctrl-U mimic these actions for consistency.

Ctrl-U is very useful for retyping a botched password at the login: prompt.

More importantly, if fixes the ctrl-w behaviour. By default c-w will delete up to the previous space. With set -o vi however, it deletes the same amount that vi considers a word to be. So if you're doing cd /a/long/dir and want to change it to /a/long/other/dir, pressing ctrl-w will only delete the last 'dir' instead of deleting the entire path. The default behaviour is highly aggravating.

If you like spaces in filenames, you should use a GUI, anyway.

I recommend Windows Explorer; it's widely available.

:D

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21755721

i don't alias mv to mv -i either, to avoid getting used to the idea that just mv is going to ask me, because i might work on a server where the alias is not set.

  gcc foo.c -o foo.c

I've always used /bin/mv or /bin/ls to get just the command, but your method is shorter. (although I can't help but think of windows paths)

  $ echo $BASH_VERSION
  5.0.11(1)-release
  
  $ mv foo.txt
  mv: missing destination file operand after 'foo.txt'
  Try 'mv --help' for more information.

  $ mv foo.txt $BASH_VERSION # Alt-. pasted $BASH_VERSION instead of foo.txt