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NAME
mv - move files
SYNOPSIS
mv [-fi] source_file target_file
mv [-fi] source_file... target_file
DESCRIPTION
In the first synopsis form, the mv utility shall move the file named by the source_file
operand to the destination specified by the target_file. This first synopsis form is
assumed when the final operand does not name an existing directory and is not a symbolic
link referring to an existing directory.
In the second synopsis form, mv shall move each file named by a source_file operand to a
destination file in the existing directory named by the target_dir operand, or referenced
if target_dir is a symbolic link referring to an existing directory. The destination path
for each source_file shall be the concatenation of the target directory, a single slash
character, and the last pathname component of the source_file. This second form is
assumed when the final operand names an existing directory.
If any operand specifies an existing file of a type not specified by the System Interfaces
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, the behavior is implementation-defined.
For each source_file the following steps shall be taken:
1. If the destination path exists, the -f option is not specified, and either of the
following conditions is true:
a. The permissions of the destination path do not permit writing and the standard
input is a terminal.
b. The -i option is specified.
the mv utility shall write a prompt to standard error and read a line from standard input.
If the response is not affirmative, mv shall do nothing more with the current source_file
and go on to any remaining source_files.
2. The mv utility shall perform actions equivalent to the rename() function defined in
the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, called with the following
arguments:
a. The source_file operand is used as the old argument.
b. The destination path is used as the new argument.
If this succeeds, mv shall do nothing more with the current source_file and go on to any
remaining source_files. If this fails for any reasons other than those described for the
errno [EXDEV] in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, mv shall write a
diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more with the current source_file, and go
on to any remaining source_files.
3. If the destination path exists, and it is a file of type directory and source_file is
not a file of type directory, or it is a file not of type directory and source_file is
a file of type directory, mv shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do
nothing more with the current source_file, and go on to any remaining source_files.
4. If the destination path exists, mv shall attempt to remove it. If this fails for any
reason, mv shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more with
the current source_file, and go on to any remaining source_files.
5. The file hierarchy rooted in source_file shall be duplicated as a file hierarchy
rooted in the destination path. If source_file or any of the files below it in the
hierarchy are symbolic links, the links themselves shall be duplicated, including
their contents, rather than any files to which they refer. The following
characteristics of each file in the file hierarchy shall be duplicated:
* The time of last data modification and time of last access
* The user ID and group ID
* The file mode
If the user ID, group ID, or file mode of a regular file cannot be duplicated, the file
mode bits S_ISUID and S_ISGID shall not be duplicated.
When files are duplicated to another file system, the implementation may require that the
process invoking mv has read access to each file being duplicated.
If the duplication of the file hierarchy fails for any reason, mv shall write a diagnostic
message to standard error, do nothing more with the current source_file, and go on to any
remaining source_files.
If the duplication of the file characteristics fails for any reason, mv shall write a
diagnostic message to standard error, but this failure shall not cause mv to modify its
exit status.
6. The file hierarchy rooted in source_file shall be removed. If this fails for any
reason, mv shall write a diagnostic message to the standard error, do nothing more
with the current source_file, and go on to any remaining source_files.
OPTIONS
The mv utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported:
-f Do not prompt for confirmation if the destination path exists. Any previous
occurrence of the -i option is ignored.
-i Prompt for confirmation if the destination path exists. Any previous occurrence of
the -f option is ignored.
Specifying more than one of the -f or -i options shall not be considered an error. The
last option specified shall determine the behavior of mv.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
source_file
A pathname of a file or directory to be moved.
target_file
A new pathname for the file or directory being moved.
target_dir
A pathname of an existing directory into which to move the input files.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used to read an input line in response to each prompt
specified in the STDERR section. Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used.
INPUT FILES
The input files specified by each source_file operand can be of any file type.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of mv:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2,
Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables
used to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other
internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
character collating elements used in the extended regular expression defined for
the yesexpr locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
LC_CTYPE
Determine 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 and input files), the behavior of character classes used in the extended
regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES
category.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses that should be
used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
Not used.
STDERR
Prompts shall be written to the standard error under the conditions specified in the
DESCRIPTION section. The prompts shall contain the destination pathname, but their format
is otherwise unspecified. Otherwise, the standard error shall be used only for diagnostic
messages.
OUTPUT FILES
The output files may be of any file type.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 All input files were moved successfully.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
If the copying or removal of source_file is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
mv may leave a partial copy of source_file at the source or destination. The mv utility
shall not modify both source_file and the destination path simultaneously; termination at
any point shall leave either source_file or the destination path complete.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
Some implementations mark for update the st_ctime field of renamed files and some do not.
Applications which make use of the st_ctime field may behave differently with respect to
renamed files unless they are designed to allow for either behavior.
EXAMPLES
If the current directory contains only files a (of any type defined by the System
Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001), b (also of any type), and a directory c:
mv a b c
mv c d
results with the original files a and b residing in the directory d in the current
directory.
RATIONALE
Early proposals diverged from the SVID and BSD historical practice in that they required
that when the destination path exists, the -f option is not specified, and input is not a
terminal, mv fails. This was done for compatibility with cp. The current text returns to
historical practice. It should be noted that this is consistent with the rename() function
defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, which does not require
write permission on the target.
For absolute clarity, paragraph (1), describing the behavior of mv when prompting for
confirmation, should be interpreted in the following manner:
if (exists AND (NOT f_option) AND
((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
The -i option exists on BSD systems, giving applications and users a way to avoid
accidentally unlinking files when moving others. When the standard input is not a
terminal, the 4.3 BSD mv deletes all existing destination paths without prompting, even
when -i is specified; this is inconsistent with the behavior of the 4.3 BSD cp utility,
which always generates an error when the file is unwritable and the standard input is not
a terminal. The standard developers decided that use of -i is a request for interaction,
so when the destination path exists, the utility takes instructions from whatever responds
to standard input.
The rename() function is able to move directories within the same file system. Some
historical versions of mv have been able to move directories, but not to a different file
system. The standard developers considered that this was an annoying inconsistency, so
this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 requires directories to be able to be moved even
across file systems. There is no -R option to confirm that moving a directory is actually
intended, since such an option was not required for moving directories in historical
practice. Requiring the application to specify it sometimes, depending on the destination,
seemed just as inconsistent. The semantics of the rename() function were preserved as much
as possible. For example, mv is not permitted to "rename" files to or from directories,
even though they might be empty and removable.
Historic implementations of mv did not exit with a non-zero exit status if they were
unable to duplicate any file characteristics when moving a file across file systems, nor
did they write a diagnostic message for the user. The former behavior has been preserved
to prevent scripts from breaking; a diagnostic message is now required, however, so that
users are alerted that the file characteristics have changed.
The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the general nature of the
contents of prompts are specified because implementations may desire more descriptive
prompts than those used on historical implementations. Therefore, an application not using
the -f option or using the -i option relies on the system to provide the most suitable
dialog directly with the user, based on the behavior specified.
When mv is dealing with a single file system and source_file is a symbolic link, the link
itself is moved as a consequence of the dependence on the rename() functionality, per the
DESCRIPTION. Across file systems, this has to be made explicit.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
cp , ln , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, rename()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .