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In my current directory, I have multiple subdirectories that contain files. I'm trying to move those files from the subdirectories to my current directory. To this end, I've created this inline bash program:

for i in */ ; do for j in $f* ; do mv "$i$j" $PWD ; done ; done

When I run this program, however, I'm prompted by the correct use format:

usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target
       mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

I'd appreciate any clarification as to why this is happening.

Thanks!

Kiol Fe
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    where is $f coming from? You should quote $PWD. – pLumo Apr 19 '21 at 19:33
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    Change your script so that instead of ... do mv "$i$j" $PWD ;' it says 'do echo mv "$i$j" $PWD ;' This may enlighten you as to why the script is doing what it is doing. Also, see this question to read why this is an important technique to avoid performing a slew of mv commands that are WRONG. – Jim L. Apr 19 '21 at 19:45
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    You forgot to show the file names that i and j have and the value of f and PWD. There are two plausible explanations, both covered by our reference question: PWD contains special characters such as whitespace, or a value of i starts with a dash. If you can't figure out the problem after reading our reference question, edit your question to show all the file names involved and a full transcript of running your script under bash -x, then flag your question and ask for it to be reopened. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Apr 19 '21 at 20:29
  • @JimL. Thanks for suggesting I use echo - it was really helpful in figuring out what was happening. – Kiol Fe Apr 19 '21 at 21:57
  • Happy to help. Then once you have a script that echos a series 100% correct mv commands (and nothing else), all you have to do is pipe the output of your script to a shell like sh or bash, and the commands will be executed. So you have a built-in "dry-run" feature where you can see what the script is going to do, before it actually does it. – Jim L. Apr 19 '21 at 22:13

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