moving files recurisively on linux

Answer 1

Use -print0 instead of -print on the find command, and the xargs -0 (or --null) option - then NULs will be used as separators rather than newlines and spaces.

find ./dir -type f -iname "*.t[argz]*[bz2]" -print0 | xargs --null mv --target-directory=dir

Answer 2

Have you looked at the -exec option for find?

find ./dir -type f -iname "*.t[argz][bz2]" -exec mv {} --target-directory=dir ';' 

The -exec option will execute any options following it as a command until it sees the semi-colon wrapped in quotes. This way you won't have to deal with the spacing issue.

Answer 3

GNU find

find ./dir -type f -iname "*.t[argz]*[bz2]" -exec mv "{}" /destination +;