MOVE

Note: MOVE is a complex command. When source and destination are on the same volume and the destination doesn't exist, it's equivalent to a simple REN, but when the destination exists or two volumes are involved, it becomes a two-step command: a COPY to the target followed, if successful,  by a DEL of the source. In this topic, references to "move" may apply to the entire process or only to one of the above steps specifically depending on context.

See  also COPY, DEL and RENAME.

File Selection

Supports attribute switches, extended wildcards, ranges, multiple file names, delayed variable expansion, and include lists. Date, time, size, or file exclusion ranges anywhere on the line apply to all source files. Use wildcards with caution on LFN volumes; see LFN File Searches for details.

Internet: Can be used with FTP/TFTP/HTTP/HTTPS Servers.

Usage:

The MOVE command moves one or more files from one directory to another, whether the directories are on the same drive or not. It has the same effect as copying the files to a new location and then deleting the originals. Like COPY and RENAME, MOVE works with single files, multiple files, and sets of files specified with an include list.

The simplest MOVE command moves a single source file to a new location and, optionally, gives it a new name. These two examples both move one file from drive C: to the root directory on drive A:

[c:\] move myfile.dat a:\

[c:\] move myfile.dat a:\savefile.dat

In both cases, MYFILE.DAT is removed from drive C: after it has been copied to drive A:. If a file called MYFILE.DAT in the first example, or SAVEFILE.DAT in the second example, already existed on drive A:, it would be overwritten. (This demonstrates the difference between MOVE and RENAME. MOVE will move files between drives and will overwrite the destination file if it exists; RENAME will not.)

When you move a single file, the destination can be a directory name or a file name. If it is a directory name, and you add a backslash [\] to the end of the name, MOVE will display an error message if the name does not refer to an existing directory. You can use this feature to keep MOVE from treating a mistyped destination directory name as a file name, and attempting to move the source file to that name.

If you MOVE multiple files, the destination must be a directory name. MOVE will move each file into the destination directory with its original name. If the destination is not a directory, MOVE will display an error message and exit. For example, if C:\FINANCE\MYFILES is not a directory, this command will display an error; otherwise, the files will be moved to that directory:

move *.wks *.txt c:\finance\myfiles

The /D option can be used for single or multiple file moves; it checks to see whether the destination is a directory, and will prompt to see if you want to create the destination directory if it doesn't exist.

If MOVE creates one or more destination directories, they will be added automatically to the extended directory search database; see Extended Directory Searches for details.

Be careful when you use MOVE with the SELECT command. If you SELECT multiple files and the destination is not a directory (for example, because of a misspelling), MOVE will assume it is a file name. In this case each file will be moved in turn to the destination file, overwriting the previous file, and then the original will be erased before the next file is moved. At the end of the command, all of the original files will have been erased and only the last file will exist as the destination file.

You can avoid this problem by using square brackets with SELECT instead of parentheses (be sure that you don't allow the command line to get too long — watch the character count in the upper left corner while you're selecting files). MOVE will then receive one list of files to move instead of a series of individual filenames, and it will detect the error and halt. You can also add a backslash [\] to the end of the destination name to ensure that it is the name of a subdirectory (see above).

When you specify a a single subdirectory source and a single subdirectory target, the source directory tree will be moved to a subdirectory of the target directory.  If the source is a subdirectory and the target doesn't exist, the target subdirectory will be created and the source tree moved to is. (These are both for compatibility with CMD.EXE.)

You can move files to and from Internet URLs (FTP, TFTP and HTTP). For example:

move ftp://ftp.abc.com/f1.txt c:\text\

Files moved to or from FTP servers are normally transferred in binary mode. To perform an ASCII transfer use the /L switch. File descriptions are not copied when moving files to an Internet URL.

Wildcard characters such as [*] and [?] will be treated as wildcards in FTP URLs, but will be treated as normal characters in HTTP URLs.

Note: The /G option (percent moved) may report erratic values during transfer of files larger than 4 Gb (an FTP limitation) and during http downloads.

MOVE supports file streams on NTFS drives. You can move an individual stream by specifying the stream name, for example:

move streamfile:s1 file2

If no stream name is specified the entire file is moved, including all streams. However, if you move a file to a drive or device which does not support streams, only the file's primary data is moved; any additional streams are not processed and their data will be lost.

See NTFS File Streams for additional details.

MOVE first attempts to rename the file(s), which is the fastest way to move files between subdirectories on the same drive. If that fails, (e.g., because the destination is on a different drive or already exists), MOVE will copy the file(s) and then delete the originals.

If MOVE must physically copy the files and delete the originals, rather than renaming them (see above), then some disk space may be freed on the source drive. The free space may be the result of moving the files to another drive, or of overwriting a larger destination file with a smaller source file. MOVE displays the amount of disk space recovered unless the /Q option is used (see below). It does so by comparing the amount of free disk space before and after the MOVE command is executed. However, this amount may be incorrect if you are using a deletion tracking system which retains deleted files for later recovery, or if another program performs a file operation while the MOVE command is executing.

When physically copying files, MOVE preserves the hidden, system, and read-only attributes of the source files, and sets the archive attribute of the destination files. However, if the files can be renamed, and no copying is required, then the source file attributes are not changed.

Use caution with the /A: and /H switches (both of which can allow MOVE to process hidden files) when you are physically moving files, and both the source and destination directories contain file descriptions. If the source file specification matches the description file name (normally DESCRIPT.ION), and you tell MOVE to process hidden files, the DESCRIPT.ION file itself will be moved, overwriting any existing file descriptions in the destination directory. For example, if the C:\DATA directory contains file descriptions, this command would overwrite any existing descriptions in the D:\SAVE directory:

[c:\data] move /h d* d:\save\

(If you remove the hidden attribute from the DESCRIPT.ION file the same caution applies even if you do not use /A: or /H, as DESCRIPT.ION is then treated like any other file.)

Note:  The wildcard expansion process will attempt to allow both CMD.EXE-style "extension" matching (only one extension, at the end of the word) and the advanced TCC string matching (allowing things like *.*.abc) when an asterisk is encountered in the destination of a MOVE command.

MOVE supports connected web folders.  If an HTML file (i.e.,  with an .htm or .html extension) is copied, MOVE will look for a  folder in the same directory with the same name and an extension of ".files".  If it is found, the .files directory will be moved to the target directory. You can disable connected web folders by setting the registry key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NoFileFolderConnection=0

Options:

A /N with one of the following arguments has an alternate meaning:

If you specify a number after the /S, MOVE will limit the subdirectory recursion to that number.  For example, if you have a directory tree "\a\b\c\d\e", /S2 will only affect the "a", "b", and "c" directories.