[linux] How to move all files including hidden files into parent directory via *

Its must be a popular question but I could not find an answer.

How to move all files via * including hidden files as well to parent directory like this:

mv /path/subfolder/* /path/

This will move all files to parent directory like expected but will not move hidden files. How to do that?

By using the find command in conjunction with the mv command, you can prevent the mv command from trying to move directories (e.g. .. and .) and subdirectories. Here's one option:

find /path/subfolder -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*' -exec mv -n {} /path \;

There are problems with some of the other answers provided. For example, each of the following will try to move subdirectories from the source path:

1) mv /path/subfolder/* /path/ ; mv /path/subfolder/.* /path/
2) mv /path/subfolder/{.,}* /path/ 
3) mv /source/path/{.[!.],}* /destination/path

Also, 2) includes the . and .. files and 3) misses files like ..foobar, ...barfoo, etc.

You could use, mv /source/path/{.[!.],..?,}* /destination/path, which would include the files missed by 3), but it would still try to move subdirectories. Using the find command with the mv command as I describe above eliminates all these problems.

This will move all files to parent directory like expected but will not move hidden files. How to do that?

You could turn on dotglob:

shopt -s dotglob               # This would cause mv below to match hidden files
mv /path/subfolder/* /path/

In order to turn off dotglob, you'd need to say:

shopt -u dotglob

Let me introduce you to my friend "dotglob". It turns on and off whether or not "*" includes hidden files.

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ touch a b c .hidden .hi .den
$ ls -a
. ..  .den  .hi .hidden a b c

$ shopt -u dotglob
$ ls *
a b c
$ for i in * ; do echo I found: $i ; done
I found: a
I found: b
I found: c

$ shopt -s dotglob
$ ls *
.den  .hi .hidden a b c
$ for i in * ; do echo I found: $i ; done
I found: .den
I found: .hi
I found: .hidden
I found: a
I found: b
I found: c

It defaults to "off".

$ shopt dotglob
dotglob         off

It is best to turn it back on when you are done otherwise you will confuse things that assume it will be off.

I think this is the most elegant, as it also does not try to move ..:

mv /source/path/{.[!.],}* /destination/path

Alternative simpler solution is to use rsync utility:

sudo rsync -vuar --delete-after --dry-run path/subfolder/ path/

^{Note: Above command will show what is going to be changed. To execute the actual changes, remove --dry-run.}

The advantage is that the original folder (subfolder) would be removed as well as part of the command, and when using mv examples here you still need to clean up your folders, not to mention additional headache to cover hidden and non-hidden files in one single pattern.

In addition rsync provides support of copying/moving files between remotes and it would make sure that files are copied exactly as they originally were (-a).

The used -u parameter would skip existing newer files, -r recurse into directories and -v would increase verbosity.

My solution for this problem when I have to copy all the files (including . files) to a target directory retaining the permissions is: (overwrite if already exists)

yes | cp -rvp /source/directory /destination/directory/

yes is for automatically overwriting destination files, r recursive, v verbose, p retain permissions.

Notice that the source path is not ending with a / (so all the files/directory and . files are copied)

Destination directory ends with / as we are placing contents of the source folder to destination as a whole.