Using for loop to move files from subdirectories to parent directories
Small change. change
subs=ls $dir1to
subs=`ls $dir1`Notice the backquotes. Backquotes actually execute the bash command and return the result. If you issue echo $subs after the line, you'll find that it correctly lists folder1, folder2.
Second small change is to remove double quotes in the mv command. Change them to
mv $dir1/$i/*/* $dir1/$iDouble quotes take literal file names while removing quotes takes the recursive directory pattern.
After that, your initial for loop is indeed correct. It will move everything from sub1 and sub2 to folder1 etc.