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In FreeBSD (I suppose it works like Linux et al in this regard), I'd like to move src_parent/mydir to dst_parent/mydir. dst_parent/mydir already exists, and it contains some subdirs that's also contained by src_parent/mydir. We can assume that no file exists in both src and dst.

Edit: The source- and destination-directories are on different filesystems.

Example:

src_parent/dir:

subdir1/
  file1b
subdir2/
  file2b

dst_parent/dir:

subdir1/
  file1a
subdir2/
  file2c

I'd like to mv src_parent/dir dst_parent/dir, so that dst_parent/dir ends up like this:

subdir1/
  file1a
  file1b
subdir2/
  file2b
  file2c

, which is the two dirs merged together. This is approx. the same behaviour as when moving files with GUI in f.x. MS Windows.

Already tried:

I've unsuccessfully tried this:

$ mv -f /src_parent/mydir/* /dst_parent/mydir/*
mv: rename /src_parent/mydir/subdir1 to /dst_parent/mydir/subdir1: Directory not empty
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

I'd link the files first and then remove the source dir:

 cd /src_parent
 find mydir -depth | cpio -pdlmv /dst_parent

check /dst_parent/mydir - if everything is fine:

 rm -rf /src_parent/mydir
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Ah - if /src_parent and /dst_parent are on different filesystems, omit the cpio-option 'l' – ktf Oct 13 '11 at 15:53
I've never heard of cpio before. When should I use that instead of cp (when not working with archives) (I looked briefly in the manpages). – poplitea Oct 13 '11 at 15:59
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Other alternative: link the files with pax -r -w -l instead of cpio to the destination directory (assuming source and destination are on the same filesystem. Pleayse consult the man-page of pax for syntax details – guenter Oct 13 '11 at 16:44
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