man-pages/man1/install.1

.\" Copyright Andries Brouwer, Ragnar Hojland Espinosa and A. Wik, 1998.
.\"
.\" This file may be copied under the conditions described
.\" in the LDP GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 1, September 1998
.\" that should have been distributed together with this file.
.\"
.TH INSTALL 1 1998-11 "GNU fileutils 4.0"
.SH NAME
install \- copy files and set attributes
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B install
.BI [ options ]
.B [\-s] [\-\-strip]
.I source dest
.br
.B install
.BI [ options ]
.B [\-s] [\-\-strip]
.I source... directory
.br
.B install
.BI [ options ]
.B [\-d,\-\-directory]
.I directory...
.sp
Options (shortest form):
.br
.B [\-b]
.B [\-c]
.B [\-D]
.BI "[\-g " group ]
.BI "[\-m " mode ]
.BI "[\-o " owner ]
.BI "[\-S " SUFFIX ]
.B [\-V {numbered,existing,simple}]
.B [\-\-help] [\-\-version] [\-\-]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B install
copies files while setting their permission modes and, if
possible, their owner and group.
.PP
In the first of these invocation forms, the
.I source
file is copied to the
.I dest
target file.  In the second, each of the
.I source
files are copied to the destination
.IR directory .
In the last, each
.I directory
(and any missing parent directories) is created.
.PP
.B install
is similar to
.BR cp ,
but allows you to control the attributes of destination files.
It is typically used in Makefiles to copy programs into their
destination directories.  It refuses to copy files onto themselves.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B "\-c"
Ignored; for compatibility with old Unix versions of
.BR install .
.TP
.B "\-d, \-\-directory"
Create each given directory and any missing parent directories,
setting the owner, group and mode as given on the command line or
to the defaults.  It also gives any parent directories it creates
those attributes.  (This is different from the SunOS 4.x
.BR install ,
which gives directories that it creates the default attributes.)
.TP
.B "\-D"
Create all leading components of the
.I dest
except the last, then copy
.I source
to
.IR dest .
This option is useful in the first format in the synopsis, above.
(New in file\%utils-4.0.)
.TP
.BI "\-g " "group" ", \-\-group=" "group"
Set the group ownership of installed files or directories to
.IR group .
The default is the process's current group.
.I group
may be either a group name or a numeric group id.
.TP
.BI "\-m " "mode" ", \-\-mode=" "mode"
Set the permissions for the installed file or directory to
.IR mode ,
which can be either an octal number, or a symbolic mode as in
.BR chmod ,
with 0 as the point of departure. The default mode is 0755 - read,
write, and execute for the owner, and read and execute for group and other.
.TP
.BI "\-o " "owner" ", \-\-owner=" "owner"
If
.B install
has appropriate privileges (is run as root), set the ownership of
installed files or directories to
.IR owner .
The default is `root'.
.I owner
may be either a user name or a numeric user ID.
.TP
.B "\-s, \-\-strip"
Strip the symbol tables from installed binary executables.
.SH "GNU BACKUP OPTIONS"
The GNU versions of programs like
.BR cp ,
.BR mv ,
.BR ln ,
.B install
and
.B patch 
will make a backup of files about to be overwritten, changed or destroyed
if that is desired. That backup files are desired is indicated by
the \-b option. How they should be named is specified by the \-V option.
In case the name of the backup file is given by the name of the file
extended by a suffix, this suffix is specified by the \-S option.
.TP
.B "\-b, \-\-backup"
Make backups of files that are about to be overwritten or removed.
.TP
.BI "\-S " SUFFIX ", \-\-suffix=" SUFFIX
Append
.I SUFFIX
to each backup file made.
If this option is not specified, the value of the
.B SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
environment variable is used.  And if
.B SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
is not set, the default is `~'.
.TP
.BI "\-V " METHOD ", \-\-version\-control=" METHOD
.RS
Specify how backup files are named. The
.I METHOD
argument can be `numbered' (or `t'), `existing' (or `nil'), or `never' (or
`simple').
If this option is not specified, the value of the
.B VERSION_CONTROL
environment variable is used.  And if
.B VERSION_CONTROL
is not set, the default backup type is `existing'.
.PP
This option corresponds to the Emacs variable `version-control'.
The valid
.IR METHOD s
are (unique abbreviations are accepted):
.TP
.BR t ", " numbered
Always make numbered backups.
.TP
.BR nil ", " existing
Make numbered backups of files that already have them, simple
backups of the others.
.TP
.BR never ", " simple
Always make simple backups.
.RE
.SH "GNU STANDARD OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-\-help"
Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-version"
Print version information on standard output, then exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LC_MESSAGES have the
usual meaning. For the GNU version, the variables SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
and VERSION_CONTROL control backup file naming, as described above.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
BSD 4.2 (which had the \-c, \-m, \-o, \-g and \-s options).
.SH NOTES
This page describes
.B install
as found in the fileutils-4.0 package;
other versions may differ slightly.