1.\" $OpenBSD: mv.1,v 1.24 2008/10/21 06:42:45 jmc Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: mv.1,v 1.8 1995/03/21 09:06:51 cgd Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 5.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 8.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 9.\" 10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 12.\" are met: 13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 16.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 17.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 18.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)mv.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 35.\" 36.Dd $Mdocdate: October 21 2008 $ 37.Dt MV 1 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm mv 41.Nd move files 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm mv 44.Op Fl fi 45.Ar source target 46.Nm mv 47.Op Fl fi 48.Ar source ... directory 49.Sh DESCRIPTION 50In its first form, the 51.Nm 52utility moves the file named by the 53.Ar source 54operand to the destination path named by the 55.Ar target 56operand. 57This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already 58existing directory. 59.Pp 60In its second form, 61.Nm 62moves each file named by a 63.Ar source 64operand to a destination specified by the 65.Ar directory 66operand. 67It is an error if the 68.Ar directory 69operand does not exist. 70The destination path for each 71.Ar source 72operand is the pathname produced by the concatenation of the 73.Ar directory 74operand, a slash, and the final pathname component of the named file. 75.Pp 76The options are as follows: 77.Bl -tag -width Ds 78.It Fl f 79Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination 80path. 81.It Fl i 82Causes 83.Nm 84to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would 85overwrite an existing file. 86If the response from the standard input begins with the character 87.Dq y , 88the move is attempted. 89.El 90.Pp 91The last of any 92.Fl f 93or 94.Fl i 95options is the one which affects 96.Nm mv Ns 's 97behavior. 98.Pp 99The 100.Nm 101utility moves symbolic links, not the files referenced by the links. 102.Pp 103If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, 104.Nm 105prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the 106.Fl i 107option. 108.Pp 109Should the 110.Xr rename 2 111call fail because the source and destination are on different file systems, 112.Nm 113will use 114.Xr cp 1 115and 116.Xr rm 1 117to accomplish the move. 118The effect is equivalent to: 119.Bd -literal -offset indent 120$ rm -f destination_path && \e 121 cp -PRp source_file destination && \e 122 rm -rf source_file 123.Ed 124.Pp 125.Ex -std mv 126.Sh EXAMPLES 127Rename file 128.Pa foo 129to 130.Pa bar , 131overwriting 132.Pa bar 133if it already exists: 134.Pp 135.Dl $ mv -f foo bar 136.Pp 137Either of these commands will rename the file 138.Pa -f 139to 140.Pa bar , 141prompting for confirmation if 142.Pa bar 143already exists: 144.Bd -literal -offset indent 145$ mv -i -- -f bar 146$ mv -i ./-f bar 147.Ed 148.Sh SEE ALSO 149.Xr cp 1 , 150.Xr rm 1 , 151.Xr rename 2 , 152.Xr symlink 7 153.Sh STANDARDS 154The 155.Nm 156utility is compliant with the 157.St -p1003.1-2004 158specification. 159.Sh HISTORY 160A 161.Nm 162command appeared in 163.At v1 . 164.Sh CAVEATS 165In the second synopsis form 166if the destination path exists, 167the 168.Ar source 169operand and the destination path 170must both be a file or must both be a directory 171for the operation to succeed. 172For example, if 173.Pa f 174is a file and 175.Pa d 176and 177.Pa d/f 178are directories, the following command will fail: 179.Pp 180.Dl $ mv f d 181