Move files to a target location and then symlink them back. If there is a lot of files and expansion would be too long for the command line you can use single quotes such as: mvln '*.json' /path/to/target

mvln.sh

#!/bin/bash

#The file system may of course change during these operations but at least the stage test is likely to prevent a half run but not guaranteed
#Out of laziness we may not add flags here and instead make a python script for more advanced use

# https://stackoverflow.com/a/33271194/19961748
target=${@:$#}
files=${*%${!#}}

function stage_file {

	target_file="${target}${1}"

	if [ -f "${target_file}" ]; then
		echo There was already a file present at the target location "${target_file}". >&2
	    exit 1;
	fi


}

function process_file {
	target_file="${target}${1}"
	source_file="${1}"

	mv "${source_file}" "${target}"
	ln -s "${target_file}" "${source_file}"
}

function stage_operation {
	while read -r line
	do
		stage_file $line
	done < <(ls -d1 $files)
}


function perform_operation {
	while read -r line
	do
		process_file $line
	done < <(ls -d1 $files)
}


stage_operation;
perform_operation;

Just realized I am not checking that source files exists in staging so will have to update that.