NAME
mv —
move files
SYNOPSIS
mv |
[-fiv] source
... directory |
DESCRIPTION
In its first form, the
mv utility renames the file named by
the
source operand to the destination path named by the
target operand. This form is assumed when the last
operand does not name an already existing directory.
In its second form,
mv moves each file named by a
source operand to a destination file in the existing
directory named by the
directory operand. The
destination path for each operand is the pathname produced by the
concatenation of the last operand, a slash, and the final pathname component
of the named file.
The following options are available:
-
-
- -f
- Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the
destination path.
-
-
- -i
- Causes mv to write a prompt to standard
error before moving a file that would overwrite an existing file. If the
response from the standard input begins with the character ``y'', the move
is attempted.
-
-
- -v
- Cause mv to be verbose, showing files as
they are processed.
The last of any
-f or
-i options is the one
which affects
mv's behavior.
It is an error for any of the
source operands to specify a
nonexistent file or directory.
It is an error for the
source operand to specify a
directory if the
target exists and is not a directory.
If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing,
mv prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the
-i option.
Should the
rename(2) call fail
because
source and
target are on
different file systems,
mv will remove the destination file,
copy the source file to the destination, and then remove the source. The
effect is roughly equivalent to:
rm -f destination_path && \
cp -PRp source_file destination_path && \
rm -rf source_file
EXIT STATUS
The
mv utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an
error occurs.
SEE ALSO
cp(1),
rename(2),
symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The
mv utility is expected to be
IEEE Std
1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.
The
-v option is an extension to
IEEE Std
1003.2 (“POSIX.2”).
HISTORY
An
mv utility appeared in
Version 1
AT&T UNIX.