NAME
mv —
move files
SYNOPSIS
mv |
[-f | -i]
source target |
mv |
[-f | -i]
source ... source directory |
DESCRIPTION
In its first form, themv 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.
(The
-ioption is ignored if the-foption is specified.) -i- Causes
mvto 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.
It is an error for either the source operand or the destination path to specify a directory unless both do.
If the destination path does not have a mode which permits
writing, mv prompts the user for confirmation as
specified for the -i option.
As the
rename(2) call does not work across file systems,
mv uses
cp(1)
and rm(1) to accomplish the move. The effect is equivalent to:
rm -f destination_path && \ cp -pr source_file destination && \ rm -rf source_file
The mv utility exits 0 on success, and
>0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The mv utility is expected to be
IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”)
compatible.