man-pages/man1/mv.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 MV 1 1998-11 "GNU fileutils 4.0"
.SH NAME
mv \- move (rename) files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "mv [" "option..." "] " "source target"
.br
.BI "mv [" "option..." "] " "source... target"
.sp
POSIX options:
.B "[\-fi] [\-\-]"
.sp
GNU options (shortest form):
.BI "[\-bfiuv] [\-S " suffix "] [\-V {numbered,existing,simple}] "
.B "[\-\-help] [\-\-version] [\-\-]"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B mv
moves or renames files or directories.
.PP
If the last argument names an existing directory,
.B mv
moves each other given file into a file with the same name in that
directory. Otherwise, if only two files are given, it renames the
first as the second.  It is an error if the last argument is not a
directory and more than two files are given.
.PP
Thus, `mv /a/x/y /b' will rename the file /a/x/y into /b/y if /b
was an existing directory, and into /b otherwise.
.PP
Let us call the file a given file is going to be moved into its
.IR destination .
If
.I destination
exists, and either the \-i option is given, or
.I destination
is unwritable, standard input is a terminal, and the
.B "\-f"
option is not given,
.B mv
prompts the user for whether to replace the file, writing a question
to stderr and reading an answer from stdin.  If the response
is not affirmative, the file is skipped.
.PP
When both
.I source
and
.I destination
are on the same filesystem, they are the same file (just the name is
changed; owner, mode, timestamps remain unchanged).
When they are on different filesystems, the source file is copied
and then deleted.
.B mv
will copy modification time, access time, user and group ID, and mode
if possible. 
When copying user and/or group ID fails, the set-user-ID and
set-group-ID bits are cleared in the copy.
.SH "POSIX OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-f"
Do not prompt for confirmation.
.TP
.B "\-i"
Prompt for confirmation when
.I destination
exists.
(In case both \-f and \-i are given, the last one given takes effect.)
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH "GNU DETAILS"
The GNU implementation (in fileutils-3.16) is broken in the sense that
.B mv
can move only regular files across filesystems.
.SH "GNU OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-f, \-\-force"
Remove existing destination files and never prompt the user.
.TP
.B "\-i, \-\-interactive"
Prompt whether to overwrite existing regular destination files.
If the response is not affirmative, the file is skipped.
.TP
.B "\-u, \-\-update"
Do not move a nondirectory that has an existing destination with
the same or newer modification time.
.TP
.B "\-v, \-\-verbose"
Print the name of each file before moving it.
.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_COLLATE, 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"
POSIX 1003.2, except that directory hierarchies cannot be moved
across filesystems.
.SH NOTES
This page describes
.B mv
as found in the fileutils-4.0 package;
other versions may differ slightly.