Move file and directory into a sub-directory along with commit history

To add to bmargulies’s comment, the complete sequence is:

mkdir -p x/p/q      # make sure the parent directories exist first
git mv x/* x/p/q    # move folder, with history preserved
git commit -m "changed the foldername x into x/p/q"

Try it first to see a preview of the move:

git mv -n x/* x/p/q

Wolfgang comments:

If you’re using bash, you can avoid the issue of trying to move a folder into itself by using an extended glob like so (using the shopt built-in):

shopt -s extglob; git mv !(folder) folder

Captain Man reports in the comments having to do:

mkdir temp 
git mv x/* temp
mkdir -p x/p/q
git mv temp x/p/q
rmdir temp;

Context:

I am on Windows with Cygwin.
I just realized I did the shopt -s extglob example wrong so my way may not have be necessary, but I typically do use zsh instead of bash, and it didn’t have the command shopt -s extglob (though I’m sure there is an alternative), so this approach should work across shells (subbing in your shell’s mkdir and rmdir if it’s especially foreign)

As an alternative, spanky mentions in the comments the -k option of git mv:

Skip move or rename actions which would lead to an error condition.

git mv -k * target/

That would avoid the “can not move directory into itself” error.