coreutils: mv invocation
11.4 ‘mv’: Move (rename) files
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‘mv’ moves or renames files (or directories). Synopses:
mv [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST
mv [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
mv [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY SOURCE...
• If two file names are given, ‘mv’ moves the first file to the
second.
• If the ‘--target-directory’ (‘-t’) option is given, or failing that
if the last file is a directory and the ‘--no-target-directory’
(‘-T’) option is not given, ‘mv’ moves each SOURCE file to the
specified directory, using the SOURCEs’ names.
‘mv’ can move any type of file from one file system to another.
Prior to version ‘4.0’ of the fileutils, ‘mv’ could move only regular
files between file systems. For example, now ‘mv’ can move an entire
directory hierarchy including special device files from one partition to
another. It first uses some of the same code that’s used by ‘cp -a’ to
copy the requested directories and files, then (assuming the copy
succeeded) it removes the originals. If the copy fails, then the part
that was copied to the destination partition is removed. If you were to
copy three directories from one partition to another and the copy of the
first directory succeeded, but the second didn’t, the first would be
left on the destination partition and the second and third would be left
on the original partition.
‘mv’ always tries to copy extended attributes (xattr), which may
include SELinux context, ACLs or Capabilities. Upon failure all but
‘Operation not supported’ warnings are output.
If a destination file exists but is normally unwritable, standard
input is a terminal, and the ‘-f’ or ‘--force’ option is not given, ‘mv’
prompts the user for whether to replace the file. (You might own the
file, or have write permission on its directory.) If the response is
not affirmative, the file is skipped.
_Warning_: Avoid specifying a source name with a trailing slash, when
it might be a symlink to a directory. Otherwise, ‘mv’ may do something
very surprising, since its behavior depends on the underlying rename
system call. On a system with a modern Linux-based kernel, it fails
with ‘errno=ENOTDIR’. However, on other systems (at least FreeBSD 6.1
and Solaris 10) it silently renames not the symlink but rather the
directory referenced by the symlink. ⇒Trailing slashes.
_Note_: ‘mv’ will only replace empty directories in the destination.
Conflicting populated directories are skipped with a diagnostic.
The program accepts the following options. Also see ⇒Common
options.
‘-b’
‘--backup[=METHOD]’
⇒Backup options. Make a backup of each file that would
otherwise be overwritten or removed.
‘-f’
‘--force’
Do not prompt the user before removing a destination file. If you
specify more than one of the ‘-i’, ‘-f’, ‘-n’ options, only the
final one takes effect.
‘-i’
‘--interactive’
Prompt whether to overwrite each existing destination file,
regardless of its permissions. If the response is not affirmative,
the file is skipped. If you specify more than one of the ‘-i’,
‘-f’, ‘-n’ options, only the final one takes effect.
‘-n’
‘--no-clobber’
Do not overwrite an existing file; silently do nothing instead. If
you specify more than one of the ‘-i’, ‘-f’, ‘-n’ options, only the
final one takes effect. This option is mutually exclusive with
‘-b’ or ‘--backup’ option.
‘-u’
‘--update’
Do not move a non-directory that has an existing destination with
the same or newer modification timestamp. If the move is across
file system boundaries, the comparison is to the source timestamp
truncated to the resolutions of the destination file system and of
the system calls used to update timestamps; this avoids duplicate
work if several ‘mv -u’ commands are executed with the same source
and destination. This option is ignored if the ‘-n’ or
‘--no-clobber’ option is also specified.
‘-v’
‘--verbose’
Print the name of each file before moving it.
‘--strip-trailing-slashes’
Remove any trailing slashes from each SOURCE argument. ⇒
Trailing slashes.
‘-S SUFFIX’
‘--suffix=SUFFIX’
Append SUFFIX to each backup file made with ‘-b’. ⇒Backup
options.
‘-t DIRECTORY’
‘--target-directory=DIRECTORY’
Specify the destination DIRECTORY. ⇒Target directory.
‘-T’
‘--no-target-directory’
Do not treat the last operand specially when it is a directory or a
symbolic link to a directory. ⇒Target directory.
‘-Z’
‘--context’
This option functions similarly to the ‘restorecon’ command, by
adjusting the SELinux security context according to the system
default type for destination files and each created directory.
An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
indicates failure.
Info Catalog
coreutils: install invocation
coreutils: Basic operations
coreutils: rm invocation