How can I move all the files from one folder to another using the command line?

by

You can use move for this. The documentation from help move states:

Moves files and renames files and directories.

To move one or more files:
MOVE [/Y | /-Y] [drive:][path]filename1[,...] destination

To rename a directory:
MOVE [/Y | /-Y] [drive:][path]dirname1 dirname2

  [drive:][path]filename1 Specifies the location and name of the file
                          or files you want to move.
  destination             Specifies the new location of the file. Destination
                          can consist of a drive letter and colon, a
                          directory name, or a combination. If you are moving
                          only one file, you can also include a filename if
                          you want to rename the file when you move it.
  [drive:][path]dirname1  Specifies the directory you want to rename.
  dirname2                Specifies the new name of the directory.

  /Y                      Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to
                          overwrite an existing destination file.
  /-Y                     Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite
                          an existing destination file.

The switch /Y may be present in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line.  Default is
to prompt on overwrites unless MOVE command is being executed from
within a batch script.

See the following transcript for an example where it initially shows the qq1 and qq2 directories as having three and no files respectively. Then, we do the move and we find that the three files have been moved from qq1 to qq2 as expected.

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents>dir qq1
 Volume in drive C is Primary
 Volume Serial Number is 04F7-0E7B

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq1

20/01/2011  11:36 AM    <DIR>          .
20/01/2011  11:36 AM    <DIR>          ..
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx1
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx2
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx3
               3 File(s)             39 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  20,092,547,072 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents>dir qq2
 Volume in drive C is Primary
 Volume Serial Number is 04F7-0E7B

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq2

20/01/2011  11:36 AM    <DIR>          .
20/01/2011  11:36 AM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  20,092,547,072 bytes free

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents>move qq1\* qq2
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq1\xx1
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq1\xx2
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq1\xx3

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents>dir qq1
 Volume in drive C is Primary
 Volume Serial Number is 04F7-0E7B

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq1

20/01/2011  11:37 AM    <DIR>          .
20/01/2011  11:37 AM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  20,092,547,072 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents>dir qq2
 Volume in drive C is Primary
 Volume Serial Number is 04F7-0E7B

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Pax\My Documents\qq2

20/01/2011  11:37 AM    <DIR>          .
20/01/2011  11:37 AM    <DIR>          ..
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx1
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx2
20/01/2011  11:36 AM                13 xx3
               3 File(s)             39 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  20,092,547,072 bytes free

More Related Contents:

  1. Can I mask an input text in a bat file?
  2. Command Prompt Separation of text by Character [closed]
  3. What are the undocumented features and limitations of the Windows FINDSTR command?
  4. What are the ERRORLEVEL values set by internal cmd.exe commands?
  5. Displaying Windows command prompt output and redirecting it to a file
  6. Defining and using a variable in batch file
  7. Which cmd.exe internal commands clear the ERRORLEVEL to 0 upon success?
  8. Error: “is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”
  9. Logical operators (“and”, “or”) in DOS batch
  10. using batch echo with special characters
  11. How to set a variable inside a loop for /F
  12. How to create empty text file from a batch file?
  13. How can a batch file run a program and set the position and size of the window?
  14. How to search and replace a string that have an equal-to sign “=” inside
  15. Arithmetic operations with HH:MM:SS times in batch file
  16. How do I compare timestamps of files in a batch script?
  17. Batch File: Typewriter Effect
  18. How can I use a .bat file to remove specific tokens from the PATH environment variable?
  19. Running Windows batch file commands asynchronously
  20. Open a URL without using a browser from a batch file
  21. How to automatically close cmd window after batch file execution?
  22. How do I minimize the command prompt from my bat file
  23. Does Windows batch support exception handling?
  24. Get java version from batch file
  25. Set a path variable with spaces in the path in a Windows .cmd file or batch file
  26. How does “FOR” work in cmd batch file?
  27. Batch file for PuTTY/PSFTP file transfer automation
  28. Batch file and DEL errorlevel 0 issue
  29. How do I create a batch file timer to execute / call another batch throughout the day
  30. To “Call” or “Not to Call” a batch file?

Leave a Comment