The Linux (GNU?) version (mv) can change its behaviour according to what you want. e.g. "mv --backup -- ./* wrong-location-that-doesnt-exist" will rename your

The Linux (GNU?) version (mv) can change its behaviour according to what you want. e.g. "mv --backup -- ./* wrong-location-that-doesnt-exist" will rename your files in an unhelpful fashion, but won't lose any. e.g. "mv --no-clobber -- ./* wrong-location-that-doesnt-exist" won't overwrite files. It's trivial to setup an alias so that your "mv" command will by default not overwrite files. (Personally I'd rather just be wary of those kinds of commands as I might be using a system where I haven't customised aliases)