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Sorry for the poorly written question, but I'm panicking right now.

I accidentally mv prefix* instead of mv prefix* target_dir/

Now, there's only one prefix file left. Have I killed them? If so how/why? Is it possible to recover the files?

Morgan
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    If you had more than two files, you should have gotten a message like `mv: target ‘prefix’ is not a directory`. If you only had two files, you have effectively overwritten the latter with the former. If you want to attempt recovery, stop using/unmount the drive. More use increases the risk of overwriting the data. – Bob Sep 13 '13 at 16:17
  • Actually, [if you're lucky](http://superuser.com/questions/446277/how-to-recover-a-file-overwritten-with-another-in-linux), you may be able to. Step 1: ***STOP USING THE COMPUTER/DRIVE/PARTITION RIGHT NOW*** and do not mount it in r/w mode until you have finished recovering. – Bob Sep 13 '13 at 16:19
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    Okay, thanks! So ´mv´ doesn't ask for confirmation before overwriting files by default? Thought it did. I guess I'll have to alias ´mv -i´ - cause that will do the trick, right? – Morgan Sep 13 '13 at 16:31
  • Yes, setting that alias will cause it to prompt before overwriting by default. Note that this would only affect whichever shell you use (e.g. `bash`) - any program that executes `mv` directly, or you doing so from a different shell, would not be affected. Also (for `bash`) remember to set the alias within one of the config files - the `alias` command does not persist across sessions. – Bob Sep 13 '13 at 16:38

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