mv moves an item to a new place. It works the same as cp, with one difference: after mv, the source is gone.

Rename

A rename is a move in the same directory:

learner@tidepool:~/shop$ mv draft.txt menu.txt
learner@tidepool:~/shop$ ls
menu.txt

Move into a directory

When the destination is a directory that exists, the item goes into it and keeps its name:

learner@tidepool:~/shop$ mv monday.txt tuesday.txt orders

Move and rename in one step

Give the destination a full new path:

learner@tidepool:~/shop$ mv draft.txt archive/menu-2025.txt

Directories

mv moves a directory as one item, with everything under it. It needs no -r.