UNIX - Renaming a File

In UNIX, renaming a file is a simple task that can be done using the ‘mv’ command. The ‘mv’ command is used to move files or rename files and directories. To rename a file, follow these steps:

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Navigate to the directory where the file is located. For example, if you want to rename a file in your home directory, you would type ‘cd’ followed by the path to your home directory, like this: ‘cd ~’.
3. Type the ‘mv’ command followed by the old file name, a space, and the new file name. For example, if you want to rename a file named ‘oldname.txt’ to ‘newname.txt’, you would type: ‘mv oldname.txt newname.txt’.
4. Press Enter. The file will be renamed to the new name.
   Note: If the new file name already exists in the directory, it will be overwritten. Be careful when renaming important files to avoid overwriting any data.
   Here’s an example of the complete process:

   cd ~   # Navigate to your home directory
   mv oldname.txt newname.txt   # Rename the file

   In this example, the file ‘oldname.txt’ is renamed to ‘newname.txt’. The ‘cd ~’ command is used to navigate to your home directory, and the ‘mv’ command is used to rename the file. After renaming the file, you can use the ‘ls’ command to verify that the file has been renamed successfully.