Move file and directory into a sub-directory along with commit history

To add to bmargulies‘s comment, the complete sequence is:

mkdir -p x/p/q      # make sure the parent directories exist first
git mv x/* x/p/q    # move folder, with history preserved
git commit -m "changed the foldername x into x/p/q"

Try it first to see a preview of the move:

git mv -n x/* x/p/q

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Wolfgang comments:

If you’re using bash, you can avoid the issue of trying to move a folder into itself by using an extended glob like so (using the shopt built-in):

shopt -s extglob; git mv !(folder) folder

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Captain Man reports in the comments having to do:

mkdir temp 
git mv x/* temp
mkdir -p x/p/q
git mv temp x/p/q
rmdir temp;

Context:

I am on Windows with Cygwin.
I just realized I did the shopt -s extglob example wrong so my way may not have be necessary, but I typically do use zsh instead of bash, and it didn’t have the command shopt -s extglob (though I’m sure there is an alternative), so this approach should work across shells (subbing in your shell’s mkdir and rmdir if it’s especially foreign)

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As an alternative, spanky mentions in the comments the -k option of git mv:

Skip move or rename actions which would lead to an error condition.

git mv -k * target/

That would avoid the “can not move directory into itself” error.