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

[Sergey Ponomarev]

> Repurposing the asterisk would only lead to various issues

We may use a separate option.
Among cp, mv and install are free to use these: -e -j -k -q -w.
E.g.

    cp -q /dir1/file1 file.bak
    cp -Q /dir1/file1 file.bak # big Q does the same to avoid typos. Same
as -r and -R
    cp /dir1/file1 -q file.bak




On Sun, Jul 9, 2023 at 5:17 PM Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> wrote:

> On 2023-07-09 14:41, Sergey Ponomarev wrote:
> > Hi again,
> >
> > So will you accept a patch with adding the * as a basename replacement
> > for
> > DEST in cp and mv?
>
> FWIW, quite frankly, I don't think that would be a good idea.
> Repurposing the asterisk would only lead to various issues down the
> road.  Using "cd" to get into the destination directory and do the
> intended copy operation, as already discussed, is a perfectly usual
> thing to do.
>
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
>
> I also don't think that would be a good idea.  See, "cp" does one thing,
> while "install" does another thing, and the primary philosophy of Unix
> is to do one thing and do it right.
>
> > 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
>