*** UNIX MANUAL PAGE BROWSER ***

mv(1) General Commands Manual mv(1) NAME mv - Moves files and directories SYNOPSIS mv [-i|-f] [--] file1 file2 mv [-i|-f] [--] file1... directory mv [-i|-f] [--] directory1... destination_directory The mv command moves files from one directory to another or renames files and directories. STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: mv: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS Overrides the -i option and any mode restrictions. (If both -f and -i are specified--for example, because an alias includes one of them--whichever appears last overrides the other.) Prompts you with the name of the file followed by a question mark whenever a move is to supersede an existing file. If the answer begins with y, or the lo- cale's equivalent of a y, the move continues. Any other reply prevents the move from occurring. (If both -f and -i are specified--for example, because an alias includes one of them--whichever appears last overrides the other.) Interprets all following arguments to mv as file names. This allows file names to start with a - (dash). DESCRIPTION If you move a file to a new directory, mv retains the original file name. When you move a file, all other links to the file remain intact. In the second form, one or more files are moved to directory with their original file names. In the third form, one or more directories are moved to the destination directory with their original names. The mv command does not move a file onto itself. When you use mv to rename a file, the target file can be either a new file name or a new directory path name. If moving the file would over- write an existing file that does not have write permission set and if standard input is a terminal, mv displays the permission code of the file to be overwritten and reads one line from standard input. If the line begins with y, or the locale's equivalent of a y, the move takes place and the file is overwritten. If not, mv does nothing with the file. When you use mv to move a directory into an existing directory, the di- rectory and its contents are added under the existing directory. The LC_MESSAGES variable determines the locale's equivalent of y or n (for yes/no queries). If a mv operation fails, mv generally writes a diagnostic message to standard error, does nothing more with the current source file, and goes on to process any remaining source files. If the copying or removal of a file is prematurely terminated by a sig- nal or error, mv might leave a partial copy of the file at either the source or the target path name. The mv program does not modify the source and target path names simultaneously; therefore, program termi- nation at any point always leaves either the source file or the target file complete. NOTES [DIGITAL] If the source is on a different file system than the desti- nation, mv must copy the source to the destination's file system and then delete the source. The effect is equivalent to the following: rm -f destination && cp -pr source destination && rm -rf source The mv command might overwrite existing files. Specify the -i option last on the command line to cause the mv command to prompt you before it moves a file. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: All files were moved success- fully. An error occurred. EXAMPLES To rename a file, enter: mv file1 file2 This renames file1 to file2. If a file named file2 already ex- ists, its old contents are replaced with those of file1. To move a directory, enter: mv dir1 dir2 This moves dir1 to dir2. It moves dir1 and all files and direc- tories under dir1 to the directory named dir2, if the second di- rectory exists. Otherwise, the directory dir1 gets renamed dir2. To move a file to another directory and give it a new name, enter: mv file1 dir1/file2 This moves file1 to dir1/file2. The name file1 is removed from the current directory, and the same file appears as file2 in the directory dir1. To move a file to another directory, keeping the same name, enter: mv file1 dir1 This moves file1 to dir1/file1. To move several files into an- other directory, enter: mv file1 dir1/file2 /u/dir2 This moves file1 to /u/dir2/file1 and dir1/file2 to /u/dir2/file2. To use mv with pattern-matching characters, en- ter: mv dir1/* . This moves all files in the directory dir1 into the current di- rectory (.), giving them the same names they had in dir1. This also empties dir1. Note that you must type a space between the * (asterisk) and the (dot). ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of mv: Pro- vides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari- ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, over- rides the values of all the other internationalization variables. De- termines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi- byte characters in arguments). Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Deter- mines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MES- SAGES. SEE ALSO Commands: cp(1), ln(1), rm(1) Functions: rename(2) Standards: standards(5) mv(1)