Shortcut in mv command to rename file without changing its directory

Question

I would like to be able to do this

mv /long/path/to/file/old.txt /long/path/to/file/new.txt

without typing the directory twice. I imagine something like

rename /long/path/to/file/old.txt new.txt

Is this possible?

See recent (very similar) question Can you conveniently rename a file without changing directory? — steeldriver, Nov 21 '19 at 18:58

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 21 '19 at 19:41

2

You can do it with brace expansion:

mv /long/path/to/file/{old,new}.txt

answered Nov 21 '19 at 19:41

bxm

1

The fun thing about brace expansion is that it's generative, rather than matching, so you can generate paths that don't exist yet. – stolenmoment Nov 24 '19 at 15:18

1 Answers1