Re: mv command usability: rename file and create dest dir

[Sergey Ponomarev]

I made two searches in Google "linux commands cheat sheet" and "linux
commands tutorial" and in dozens of the articles found there wasn't any
mention of the `install`.
Analysis of github or gists will show that many users didn't use it.
I myself never thought to use it because I thought that was related to make
install and never seen it as a usual program that can be used daily. Its
name may be confusing because for me it looks like it makes something
different.
Meanwhile when I was a beginner a few times I checked cp help (to find -R
option).
Having the -o -g options there would save for some time.

These features are day to day things so we can increase productivity of
users but also make the boring video tutorials faster.

On Sat, Aug 12, 2023 at 12:37 PM Arsen Arsenović <arsen@aarsen.me> wrote:

>
> Sergey Ponomarev <stokito@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Hi again,
> >
> > So will you accept a patch with adding the * as a basename replacement
> for
> > DEST in cp and mv?
> >
> > And speaking about the second usability problem about creation of a non
> > existing DEST directory.
> > There is install command which makes exactly this but also support
> setting
> > owner:
> >
> >        -D     create  all  leading  components of DEST except the last,
> or
> > all
> >               components of --target-directory, then copy SOURCE to DEST
> >
> >        -g, --group=GROUP
> >               set group ownership, instead of process' current group
> >
> >        -m, --mode=MODE
> >               set permission mode (as in chmod), instead of rwxr-xr-x
> >
> >        -o, --owner=OWNER
> >               set ownership (super-user only)
> >
> > It's great and actually looks like this command is just an extension of
> cp.
> > But while the cp is well known the install command is used rarely. I
> never
> > looked into it and never saw its man. I guess many users too.
>
> install is used a lot, especially by build systems.  It is also quite
> easy to encounter in the manual, sitting in the basic operations section
> right next to cp:
>
>   Next: Special file types,  Prev: Directory listing,  Up: Top
>
>   11 Basic operations
>   *******************
>
>   This chapter describes the commands for basic file manipulation:
>   copying, moving (renaming), and deleting (removing).
>
>   * Menu:
>
>   * cp invocation::               Copy files.
>   * dd invocation::               Convert and copy a file.
>   * install invocation::          Copy files and set attributes.
>   * mv invocation::               Move (rename) files.
>   * rm invocation::               Remove files or directories.
>   * shred invocation::            Remove files more securely.
>   -----Info: (coreutils)Basic operations, 17 lines --Top----------
>
> > What if we just merge these two commands? That will simplify things.
> > It looks like there are two conflicting options -d -s so we can't just
> make a
> > symlink to cp but anyway it's easy to just wrap the cp.
>
> IIRC, internally, the two already share a significant portion of the
> code.
>
> > Will you consider a patch with the change?
> >
> > This two additions while being relatively small will make more effective
> > interacting with command line and writing scripts.
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 8:19 PM Sergey Ponomarev <stokito@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Workaround: use Brace Expansion:
> >> mv /tmp/{file1,.bak}
> >> or
> >> mv /tmp/{file1,.bak}
> >>
> >> It wasn't intuitive, that's why I didn't figure it out in the first
> place.
> >> Autocomplete doesn't work, but this is a bash issue.
> >>
> >> Still, the placeholder would be kind of more clear but it's an
> additional
> >> feature so you probably WONTFIX it.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 7:23 PM Sergey Ponomarev <stokito@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Thank you for the fast response. Nice tricks, didn't know about the
> >>> direxpand. Probably most regular users don't know either :(
> >>> As you may see, even with a workaround this usability can be improved.
> >>> So what about having the simple solution in place?
> >>> 1. Use placeholder like asterisk to refer the source dir inside of the
> >>> dest dir
> >>> 2. Use -F arg to create directory if not exists
> >>>
> >>> Have a nice weekend
> >>>
> >>> On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 6:44 PM Glenn Golden <gdg@zplane.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sat, Jul 1, 2023, at 09:03, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> >>>> > On 7/1/23 14:12, Sergey Ponomarev wrote:
> >>>> >  > To rename a file a user need to use mv command and specify the
> DEST
> >>>> dir:
> >>>> >  >
> >>>> >  >      mv /some/very/long/path/file /some/very/long/path/
> >>>> >  >
> >>>> >  > This makes it not so easy to use when typing a command but also
> >>>> makes a
> >>>> >  > script line longer.
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Assuming you meant
> >>>> >
> >>>> >    $ mv /some/very/long/path/file /some/very/long/path/file2
> >>>> >
> >>>> > as in the other example - this could be done with:
> >>>> >
> >>>> >    $ cd /some/very/long/path && mv file file2
> >>>> >
> >>>> > or (with GNU coreutils' env):
> >>>> >
> >>>> >    $ env -C /some/very/long/path mv file file2
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Have a nice day,
> >>>> > Berny
> >>>>
> >>>> If you use bash and if your long paths are consistent (i.e. often
> >>>> referring
> >>>> to the same source or destination each time) then another approach is
> to
> >>>> just
> >>>> enable the bash 'direxpand' option, define some short envars in your
> >>>> .bash_profile or .bashrc, and use those to facilitate commandline (and
> >>>> script) operations, e.g.
> >>>>
> >>>>   export p1=/long/path/to/some/frequently/accessed/directory
> >>>>   export p2=/another/long/path/to/a/frequently/accessed/directory
> >>>>
> >>>> Then, for cmdline ops, just typing
> >>>>
> >>>>   $ mv $a/<tab>
> >>>>
> >>>> immediately expands $a (inline on the commandline) to
> >>>>
> >>>>   $ mv /long/path/to/some/frequently/accessed/directory/
> >>>>
> >>>> and you can then tack on "$b" (or any other destination).
> >>>>
> >>>> The 'direxpand' option provides nice immediate feedback that the envar
> >>>> you
> >>>> selected is the correct one (among, presumably, several 1-letter
> envars
> >>>> you've defined like this for various long paths of interest.)
> >>>>
> >>>> I use this approach frequently in my own workflow when dealing with
> >>>> annoyingly long but consistent paths.
> >>>>
> >>>> Glenn
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Sergey Ponomarev <https://linkedin.com/in/stokito>,
> >>> stokito.com
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Sergey Ponomarev <https://linkedin.com/in/stokito>,
> >> stokito.com
> >>
>
>
> --
> Arsen Arsenović
>