When trying to use mv to rename a file on an external drive using coreutils 8.30-2 on a debian system (Linux version 4.19.0-3-amd64), the rename fails with the error message: mv: cannot move 'file1' to a subdirectory of itself 'file2' Downgrading to coreutils 8.30-1, the rename executes as expected. The following is the result of running a test script. The folder '/backup' is an external drive using the ZFS fileystems (zfs-zed 0.7.12-3), but I have seen a report on superuser.com ( https://superuser.com/questions/1409618/renaming-a-file-with-mv-cannot-move-to-a-subdirectory-of-itself) that this also happens with NTFS external drives. root@capella:~# ./mv-bug + apt install -y --allow-downgrades coreutils=8.30-1 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done coreutils is already the newest version (8.30-1). 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. + cd /backup + touch t + ls s t ls: cannot access 's': No such file or directory t + mv t s + ls s t ls: cannot access 't': No such file or directory s + rm s t rm: cannot remove 't': No such file or directory + cd /root + apt install -y coreutils=8.30-2 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be upgraded: coreutils 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 2,707 kB of archives. After this operation, 4,096 B disk space will be freed. Get:1 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 coreutils amd64 8.30-2 [2,707 kB] Fetched 2,707 kB in 1s (2,729 kB/s) apt-listchanges: Reading changelogs... (Reading database ... 226704 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../coreutils_8.30-2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking coreutils (8.30-2) over (8.30-1) ... Setting up coreutils (8.30-2) ... Processing triggers for install-info (6.5.0.dfsg.1-4+b1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.5-2) ... + cd /backup + touch t + ls s t ls: cannot access 's': No such file or directory t + mv t s mv: cannot move 't' to a subdirectory of itself, 's' + ls s t ls: cannot access 's': No such file or directory t + rm s t rm: cannot remove 's': No such file or directory root@capella:~#