1.\"- 2.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 3.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 6.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)mv.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd May 12, 2007 36.Dt MV 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm mv 40.Nd move files 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl f | i | n 44.Op Fl v 45.Ar source target 46.Nm 47.Op Fl f | i | n 48.Op Fl v 49.Ar source ... directory 50.Sh DESCRIPTION 51In its first form, the 52.Nm 53utility renames the file named by the 54.Ar source 55operand to the destination path named by the 56.Ar target 57operand. 58This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already 59existing directory. 60.Pp 61In its second form, 62.Nm 63moves each file named by a 64.Ar source 65operand to a destination file in the existing directory named by the 66.Ar directory 67operand. 68The destination path for each operand is the pathname produced by the 69concatenation of the last operand, a slash, and the final pathname 70component of the named file. 71.Pp 72The following options are available: 73.Bl -tag -width indent 74.It Fl f 75Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination 76path. 77(The 78.Fl f 79option overrides any previous 80.Fl i 81or 82.Fl n 83options.) 84.It Fl i 85Cause 86.Nm 87to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would 88overwrite an existing file. 89If the response from the standard input begins with the character 90.Ql y 91or 92.Ql Y , 93the move is attempted. 94(The 95.Fl i 96option overrides any previous 97.Fl f 98or 99.Fl n 100options.) 101.It Fl n 102Do not overwrite an existing file. 103(The 104.Fl n 105option overrides any previous 106.Fl f 107or 108.Fl i 109options.) 110.It Fl v 111Cause 112.Nm 113to be verbose, showing files after they are moved. 114.El 115.Pp 116It is an error for the 117.Ar source 118operand to specify a directory if the target exists and is not a directory. 119.Pp 120If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, 121.Nm 122prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the 123.Fl i 124option. 125.Pp 126As the 127.Xr rename 2 128call does not work across file systems, 129.Nm 130uses 131.Xr cp 1 132and 133.Xr rm 1 134to accomplish the move. 135The effect is equivalent to: 136.Bd -literal -offset indent 137rm -f destination_path && \e 138cp -pRP source_file destination && \e 139rm -rf source_file 140.Ed 141.Sh EXIT STATUS 142.Ex -std 143.Sh COMPATIBILITY 144The 145.Fl n 146and 147.Fl v 148options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 149.Sh SEE ALSO 150.Xr cp 1 , 151.Xr rm 1 , 152.Xr symlink 7 153.Sh STANDARDS 154The 155.Nm 156utility is expected to be 157.St -p1003.2 158compatible. 159.Sh HISTORY 160A 161.Nm 162command appeared in 163.At v1 . 164