Question

Which option is used for backing up destination file in mv command?

(a) -b

(b) -f

(c) -v

(d) -i

I had been asked this question during an online exam.

I would like to ask this question from Deleting and Renaming files: rm and mv Command topic in portion Handling Ordinary Files of Unix

Answer 1

The correct choice is (a) -b

The best explanation: mv command renames the destination file if it already exists but when -b is used, it will add a suffix to the filename. This will save a copy of the original file instead of overwriting it. The default suffix is  ( ~ ).