#1135567 mv should indicate if trying to clobber even with -n -v used

Package:
coreutils
Source:
coreutils
Description:
GNU core utilities
Submitter:
Jeffrey Cliff
Date:
2026-05-02 19:31:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1135567#5
Date:
2026-05-02 19:28:26 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

scenario: suppose you want to move a directory into a place where
there's already a file
(or alternative, a directory present with a directory of the same name
inside).
using the -n -v flags.

ie

$ alias mv='mv -n -v '

$ ls ../troubleshooting
../troubleshooting

$ mv troubleshooting/ ../troubleshooting

$ echo $?
0

[ie it shows nothing wrong happened, mv completed "successfully"]

$ ls troubleshooting/
THIS_IS_STILL_HERE

[ie nothing happened]

what should happen instead is if -v is set : something like what
happens when --debug is set:

$mv troubleshooting/ ../troubleshooting
skipped '../troubleshooting'

otherwise while you're moving directories around with -n you won't be
able to know when a
directory is not moved without checking, which seems results in a very
counterintuitive result of
moving a directory and then it being still there, unmoved with no explanation.

( in the event this becomes a different behavior from POSIX or
something perhaps a --gnu or something flag might be introduced )

Jeff Cliff