mv(1) User Commands mv(1)NAMEmv - move files
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/mv [-fi] source target_file
/usr/bin/mv [-fi] source... target_dir
/usr/xpg4/bin/mv [-fi] source target_file
/usr/xpg4/bin/mv [-fi] source... target_dir
DESCRIPTION
In the first synopsis form, the mv utility moves the file named by the
source operand to the destination specified by the target_file. source
and target_file may not have the same name. If target_file does not
exist, mv creates a file named target_file. If target_file exists, its
contents are overwritten. This first synopsis form is assumed when the
final operand does not name an existing directory.
In the second synopsis form, mv moves each file named by a source oper‐
and to a destination file in the existing directory named by the tar‐
get_dir operand. The destination path for each source is the concatena‐
tion of the target directory, a single slash character (/), and the
last path name component of the source. This second form is assumed
when the final operand names an existing directory.
If mv determines that the mode of target_file forbids writing, it will
print the mode (see chmod(2)), ask for a response, and read the stan‐
dard input for one line. If the response is affirmative, the mv occurs,
if permissible; otherwise, the command exits. Notice that the mode dis‐
played may not fully represent the access permission if target is asso‐
ciated with an ACL. When the parent directory of source is writable and
has the sticky bit set, one or more of the following conditions must be
true:
· the user must own the file
· the user must own the directory
· the file must be writable by the user
· the user must be a privileged user
If source is a file and target_file is a link to another file with
links, the other links remain and target_file becomes a new file.
If source and target_file/target_dir are on different file systems, mv
copies the source and deletes the original. Any hard links to other
files are lost. mv will attempt to duplicate the source file character‐
istics to the target, that is, the owner and group id, permission
modes, modification and access times, ACLs, and extended attributes, if
applicable. For symbolic links, mv will preserve only the owner and
group of the link itself.
If unable to preserve owner and group id, mv will clear S_ISUID and
S_ISGID bits in the target. mv will print a diagnostic message to
stderr if unable to clear these bits, though the exit code will not be
affected. mv may be unable to preserve extended attributes if the tar‐
get file system does not have extended attribute support.
/usr/xpg4/bin/mv will print a diagnostic message to stderr for all
other failed attempts to duplicate file characteristics. The exit code
will not be affected.
In order to preserve the source file characteristics, users must have
the appropriate file access permissions. This includes being super-user
or having the same owner id as the destination file.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-fmv will move the file(s) without prompting even if it is writ‐
ing over an existing target. Note that this is the default if
the standard input is not a terminal.
-imv will prompt for confirmation whenever the move would over‐
write an existing target. An affirmative answer means that the
move should proceed. Any other answer prevents mv from over‐
writing the target.
/usr/bin/mv
Specifying both the -f and the -i options is not considered an error.
The -f option will override the -i option.
/usr/xpg4/bin/mv
Specifying both the -f and the -i options is not considered an error.
The last option specified will determine the behavior of mv.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
source A path name of a file or directory to be moved.
target_file A new path name for the file or directory being moved.
target_dir A path name of an existing directory into which to move
the input files.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of mv when encoun‐
tering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of mv: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 All input files were moved successfully.
>0 An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
/usr/bin/mv
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcsu │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│CSI │Enabled │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Stable │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
/usr/xpg4/bin/mv
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWxcu4 │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│CSI │Enabled │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Standard │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOcp(1), cpio(1), ln(1), rm(1), setfacl(1), chmod(2), attributes(5), env‐
iron(5), fsattr(5), largefile(5), standards(5)NOTES
A -- permits the user to mark explicitly the end of any command line
options, allowing mv to recognize filename arguments that begin with a
-. As an aid to BSD migration, mv will accept - as a synonym for --.
This migration aid may disappear in a future release.
SunOS 5.10 7 Jun 2001 mv(1)
