How to use wildcards to move multiple files?

Using Wildcards to Move Multiple Files

Wildcards are a powerful feature in Linux that allow you to select and operate on multiple files or directories based on patterns. In the context of moving files, wildcards can be particularly useful when you need to relocate several files at once.

Understanding Wildcards

Wildcards are special characters that can be used to represent one or more characters in a filename. The most common wildcards in Linux are:

1. *: Matches any number of characters (including zero characters).
2. ?: Matches a single character.
3. [ ]: Matches any one of the characters enclosed within the brackets.

For example, if you have files named file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt, and report.txt, you can use the wildcard *.txt to select all of them.

Moving Files Using Wildcards

To move multiple files using wildcards, you can use the mv command in the following format:

mv source_pattern destination_directory

Here's an example:

# Move all files with the .txt extension to the /new_directory/ folder
mv *.txt /new_directory/

In this case, the *.txt wildcard selects all files with the .txt extension, and the mv command moves them to the /new_directory/ folder.

You can also use other wildcards to select specific files. For instance, to move all files starting with "file" and ending with ".txt":

mv file*.txt /new_directory/

Or, to move all files with a single-character extension:

mv *.? /new_directory/

Here's a Mermaid diagram to visualize the process:

The diagram shows how the wildcard pattern is used in the mv command to select and move multiple files from the source directory to the destination directory.

Remember, using wildcards can be a time-saving and efficient way to manage your files, but it's important to double-check the files being selected before executing the mv command to avoid accidentally moving the wrong files.