mv(1)

mv -- move files

Synopsis

mv [-f] [-i] [-e extent_opt] file . . . target

Description

The mv command moves the specified files to target. A file and the target must not have the same name. (Care must be taken when using sh(1) metacharacters). If target is not a directory, only one file may be specified before it; if it is a directory, more than one file may be specified. If target does not exist, mv creates a file named target. If target exists and is not a directory, its contents are overwritten. If target is a directory the file(s) are moved to that directory.

If mv determines that the mode of target forbids writing, it will print the mode (see chmod(2)), ask for a response, and read the standard input for one line. If the line begins with ``y'', the mv occurs, if permissible; otherwise, the command exits. (The form of an affirmative is locale dependent, ``y'' in the C locale. See LANG on environ(5).) When mv succeeds, the resulting file(s) will have the same uid and gid as the source file(s). When the parent directory of a file 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

The following options are recognized:

-i

mv will prompt for confirmation whenever the move would overwrite an existing target. A ``y'' answer means that the move should proceed. Any other answer prevents mv from overwriting the target.

-f

mv will move the file(s) without prompting even if it is writing over an existing target. This option overrides the -i option. Note that this is the default if the standard input is not a terminal.

-e extent_opt

Specify how to handle a vxfs file that has extent attribute information. Extent attributes include reserved space, a fixed extent size, and extent alignment. It may not be possible to preserve the information if the destination file system does not support extent attributes, has a different block size than the source file system, or lacks free extents appropriate to satisfy the extent attribute requirements. Valid values for extent_opt are:

warn: Issue a warning message if extent attribute information cannot be kept (default).
force: Fail the move if extent attribute information cannot be kept.
ignore: Ignore extent attribute information entirely.

If file is a directory, target must be a directory in the same physical file system. target and file do not have to share the same parent directory.

If file is a file and target is a link to another file with links, the other links remain and target becomes a new file.

Files

/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore.abi: language-specific message file (see LANG on environ(5))

References

chmod(1), cp(1), cpio(1), ln(1), rm(1)

Notices

If file and target are on different file systems, mv copies the file and deletes the original; any links to other files are lost.

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 accepts - as a synonym for --. This migration aid may disappear in a future release. If a -- and a - both appear on the same command line, the second will be interpreted as a filename.

This command has been updated to handle files greater than 2GB.