I agree with what Aia said, but there are cases where adding a "/." (or just "/") to the end of a pathname that is supposed to be a directory can be helpful. For example, with the command:

Code:

mv /home/rahualux/*.csv /home/rahualux/details/employee_files

it is true that mv will issue a diagnostic if /home/rahualux/*.csv expands to a list of more than one file if /home/rahualux/details/employee_files is not a directory; but if the *.csv only matches one file and employee_files does not exist (or is a non-directory file), the file matching *.csv will be copied to or linked to employee_files destroying its previous contents if there were any. While, under these circumstances, the command:

Code:

mv /home/rahualux/*.csv /home/rahualux/details/employee_files/

will get a diagnostic saying that employee_files is not a directory.

When I am typing a command into the shell to move a file into a directory, I usually add a trailing "/" on the directory name just to protect against typing mistakes. I tend not to do that in scripts if I am sure that the directory structure is safe. If the script I'm writing is moving files around in an file hierarchy where several people have write access and multiple people/processes might be rearranging files while the script is running, I frequently use a trailing "/" on the target directories so the script fails as soon as something goes wrong.

Whether or not you decide to add a "/" or "/." to the ends of directory names is something that will probably depend on your typing skills, how many times you lose a file by accidentally misspelling a directory name, how much pain you have gone through while trying to recover a file you accidentally lost due to typing mistakes, and how important the files you are moving at the moment are to you.