.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)mv.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/mv/mv.1,v 1.25 2002/08/26 06:16:51 keramida Exp $ .\" .Dd July 9, 2002 .Dt MV 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mv .Nd move files .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm mv .Op Fl f | i | n .Op Fl v .Ar source target .Nm mv .Op Fl f | i | n .Op Fl v .Ar source ... directory .Sh DESCRIPTION In its first form, the .Nm mv utility renames the file named by the .Ar source operand to the destination path named by the .Ar target operand. This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already existing directory. .Pp In its second form, .Nm mv moves each file named by a .Ar source operand to a destination file in the existing directory named by the .Ar 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. .Pp The following options are available: .Bl -tag -width indent .It Fl f Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination path. (The .Fl f option overrides any previous .Fl i or .Fl n options.) .It Fl i Cause .Nm 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 .Ql y or .Ql Y , the move is attempted. (The .Fl i option overrides any previous .Fl f or .Fl n options.) .It Fl n Do not overwrite an existing file. (The .Fl n option overrides any previous .Fl f or .Fl i options.) .It Fl v Cause .Nm mv to be verbose, showing files after they are moved. .El .Pp It is an error for either the .Ar source operand or the destination path to specify a directory unless both do. .Pp If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, .Nm mv prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the .Fl i option. .Pp As the .Xr rename 2 call does not work across file systems, .Nm mv uses .Xr cp 1 and .Xr rm 1 to accomplish the move. The effect is equivalent to: .Bd -literal -offset indent rm -f destination_path && \e cp -pRP source_file destination && \e rm -rf source_file .Ed .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .Ex -std .Pp The command "mv dir/afile dir" will abort with an error message. .Sh LEGACY DIAGNOSTICS In legacy mode, the command "mv dir/afile dir" will fail silently, returning an exit code of 0. .Pp For more information about legacy mode, see .Xr compat 5 . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr cp 1 , .Xr rm 1 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh COMPATIBILITY The .Fl n and .Fl v options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. .Pp The .Nm mv utility now supports HFS+ Finder and Extended Attributes and resource forks. The .Nm mv utility will no longer strip resource forks off of HFS files. For an alternative method, refer to .Xr cp 1 . .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm mv utility is expected to be .St -p1003.2 compatible. .Sh HISTORY A .Nm mv command appeared in .At v1 .