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.\" 3. 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 March 15, 2013 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 hv 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 h 85If the 86.Ar target 87operand is a symbolic link to a directory, 88do not follow it. 89This causes the 90.Nm 91utility to rename the file 92.Ar source 93to the destination path 94.Ar target 95rather than moving 96.Ar source 97into the directory referenced by 98.Ar target . 99.It Fl i 100Cause 101.Nm 102to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would 103overwrite an existing file. 104If the response from the standard input begins with the character 105.Ql y 106or 107.Ql Y , 108the move is attempted. 109(The 110.Fl i 111option overrides any previous 112.Fl f 113or 114.Fl n 115options.) 116.It Fl n 117Do not overwrite an existing file. 118(The 119.Fl n 120option overrides any previous 121.Fl f 122or 123.Fl i 124options.) 125.It Fl v 126Cause 127.Nm 128to be verbose, showing files after they are moved. 129.El 130.Pp 131It is an error for the 132.Ar source 133operand to specify a directory if the target exists and is not a directory. 134.Pp 135If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, 136.Nm 137prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the 138.Fl i 139option. 140.Pp 141As the 142.Xr rename 2 143call does not work across file systems, 144.Nm 145uses 146.Xr cp 1 147and 148.Xr rm 1 149to accomplish the move. 150The effect is equivalent to: 151.Bd -literal -offset indent 152rm -f destination_path && \e 153cp -pRP source_file destination && \e 154rm -rf source_file 155.Ed 156.Sh EXIT STATUS 157.Ex -std 158.Sh EXAMPLES 159Rename file 160.Pa foo 161to 162.Pa bar , 163overwriting 164.Pa bar 165if it already exists: 166.Pp 167.Dl $ mv -f foo bar 168.Sh COMPATIBILITY 169The 170.Fl h , 171.Fl n , 172and 173.Fl v 174options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 175.Sh SEE ALSO 176.Xr cp 1 , 177.Xr rm 1 , 178.Xr symlink 7 179.Sh STANDARDS 180The 181.Nm 182utility is expected to be 183.St -p1003.2 184compatible. 185.Sh HISTORY 186A 187.Nm 188command appeared in 189.At v1 . 190