Mass-rename and mass-move tools are a bit tricky sometimes. I seem to recall having problems even with Windows tools years ago, where Explorer tried to rename all the files I had selected to the same name. That didn’t go over well.

Point being, aside from qmv and the rest of rename-utils, I don’t see many multiple file move tools. mmv is one of the rare ones though.

mmv gives its name to a quadfecta of tools — mmv, plus mcp, mad and mln. You can probably figure out what each one corresponds to, among Unix-ish tools.

mmv is a little cryptic at first, but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well. The man pages are useful, but more useful for me was this blog post that showed examples. (I’m an assimilator. I follow examples and then break away to do follow my own style.)

To be honest, mmv won’t replace rename-utils for me. I can see where it might be preferable, for simpler, faster moves with quicker patterns and substitutions.

For my money, the real charm of qmv is being able to pipe everything through a text editor, and really get my hands dirty.

Looks like we’re about half way through the M section. There’s hope for me yet. 😐