Working with files

Copying

Use cp (copy) to copy. You have to provide a source and destination path.

Copy 'test.txt' to 'copy.txt' (both in the current directory)
cp test.txt copy.txt

Copy 'test.txt' to another location
cp test.txt /Users/alice/documents/copy.txt

You can copy entire directories (and their contents) with the -R (recursive) option.

Copy the directory 'music' to 'music2'
cp -R music music2

Use mv (move) to move files and directories. You have to provide a source and destination path.

Move 'test.txt' to 'copy.txt'
mv test.txt copy.txt

Move 'test.txt' to the parent directory (note since we don't want to change the filename we can just specify the directory)
mv test.txt ../

You can also move directories (and their contents).

Move the directory 'music' to 'music2'
mv music music2

Move the directory 'music' to an existing subdirectory (note the trailing slash)
mv music old/

Use rm (remove) to move files and directories.

Remove 'test.txt'
rm test.txt

To remove directories and their contents, include the -rf option.

Remove the directory 'music'
rm -rf music