linux mv command weirdness

Question

can anyone tell me why when I type:

mv -f ./tmp/members ./

I get:

mv: cannot move `./tmp/members' to a subdirectory of itself, `./members'

And moreover the correct way to move this directory?

Also, there is already a directory at ./members ... I want to completely overwrite this directory, not just add the new contents to it.

I've discovered that this works:

mv tmp/members members

but only for new contents... the old contents are still left behind...

Thanks!

-Eric

Answer 1

If you are in /tmp when you run the first one, that would account for the error message. The easiest way to do what you want is to rm -rf the target and then mv the original dir to that location.