Possible Duplicate:
Reuse text on a bash command
If I want to rename a file a few directories deep, how can I avoid repeating the path?
For example:
mv path/to/old_filename.txt path/to/new_filename.txt
I'm wondering if there's a way to make this:
mv path/to/old_filename.txt (?)new_filename.txt
Where (?) would be some way of saying "in the same directory."
You can use brace expansion:
mv path/to/{old_filename.txt,new_filename.txt}
Here is a link to the GNU guide on brace expansion in the bash shell, which defines a list of substitutes and tells bash to repeat the parameter using a different substitute each time it repeats.
For example,
a{b,c,dd,e}
will be expanded to
ab ac add ae
The only caveat is that the expanded repetitions must be able to follow each other as arguments to the target program.
Using bash history expansion:
mv path/to/oldfile !#:1:h/newfile
where !#:1:h means: from the line you're currently typing ("!#"), take the first word (":1"), then take only the path component (":h" -- the head) from it.
Darth's answer above is clever, but if you want to use an approach with cd, you could also consider using a subshell:
(cd path/to && mv old_filename.txt new_filename.txt)
Because the directory change takes place in the subshell, you will not actually change directories in your interactive shell.
Another alternative that is useful, if you are going to do several commands in the directory, is this:
pushd /path/to
mv oldfile newfile
...
popd
