1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)mv.1 6.4 (Berkeley) 06/11/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt MV 1 10.Os BSD 4.4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm mv 13.Nd move files 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm mv 16.Op Fl f Li \&| Fl i 17.Ar source target 18.Nm mv 19.Op Fl f Li \&| Fl i 20.Ar source ... source directory 21.De 22.Sh DESCRIPTION 23.Pp 24In its first form, the 25.Nm mv 26utility renames the file named by the 27.Ar source 28operand to the destination path named by the 29.Ar target 30operand. 31This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already 32existing directory. 33.Pp 34In its second form, 35.Nm mv 36moves each file named by a 37.Ar source 38operand to a destination file in the existing directory named by the 39.Ar directory 40operand. 41The destination path for each operand is the pathname produced by the 42concatenation of the last operand, a slash, and the final pathname 43component of the named file. 44.Pp 45The following options are available: 46.Tw Ds 47.Tp Fl f 48Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination 49path. 50(The 51.Fl i 52option is ignored if the 53.Fl f 54option is specified.) 55.Tp Fl i 56Causes 57.Nm mv 58to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would 59overwrite an existing file. 60If the response from the standard input begins with the character ``y'', 61the move is attempted. 62.Tp 63.Pp 64It is an error for either the 65.Ar source 66operand or the destination path to specify a directory unless both do. 67.Pp 68If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, 69.Nm mv 70prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the 71.Fl i 72option. 73.Pp 74As the 75.Xr rename 2 76call does not work across file systems, 77.Nm mv 78uses 79.Xr cp 1 80and 81.Xr rm 1 82to accomplish the move. 83The effect is equivalent to: 84.Pp 85.Ds I 86rm -f destination_path && \e 87\tcp -pr source_file destination && \e 88\trm -rf source_file 89.De 90.Pp 91The 92.Nm mv 93utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. 94.Sh SEE ALSO 95.Sh STANDARDS 96The 97.Nm mv 98function is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible. 99