1MV(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual MV(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
12 mv - move files
13
15 mv [-fi] source_file target_file
16 mv [-fi] source_file... target_file
18
21 In the first synopsis form, the mv utility shall move the file named by
22 the source_file operand to the destination specified by the tar‐
23 get_file. This first synopsis form is assumed when the final operand
24 does not name an existing directory and is not a symbolic link refer‐
25 ring to an existing directory.
26 In the second synopsis form, mv shall move each file named by a
28 source_file operand to a destination file in the existing directory
29 named by the target_dir operand, or referenced if target_dir is a sym‐
30 bolic link referring to an existing directory. The destination path for
31 each source_file shall be the concatenation of the target directory, a
32 single slash character, and the last pathname component of the
33 source_file. This second form is assumed when the final operand names
34 an existing directory.
35 If any operand specifies an existing file of a type not specified by
37 the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, the behavior is
38 implementation-defined.
39 For each source_file the following steps shall be taken:
41 1. If the destination path exists, the -f option is not specified, and
43 either of the following conditions is true:
44 a. The permissions of the destination path do not permit writing
46 and the standard input is a terminal.
47 b. The -i option is specified.
49 the mv utility shall write a prompt to standard error and read a line
51 from standard input. If the response is not affirmative, mv shall do
52 nothing more with the current source_file and go on to any remaining
53 source_files.
54 2. The mv utility shall perform actions equivalent to the rename()
56 function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
57 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, called with the following arguments:
58 a. The source_file operand is used as the old argument.
60 b. The destination path is used as the new argument.
62 If this succeeds, mv shall do nothing more with the current source_file
64 and go on to any remaining source_files. If this fails for any reasons
65 other than those described for the errno [EXDEV] in the System Inter‐
66 faces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, mv shall write a diagnostic mes‐
67 sage to standard error, do nothing more with the current source_file,
68 and go on to any remaining source_files.
69 3. If the destination path exists, and it is a file of type directory
71 and source_file is not a file of type directory, or it is a file
72 not of type directory and source_file is a file of type directory,
73 mv shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing
74 more with the current source_file, and go on to any remaining
75 source_files.
76 4. If the destination path exists, mv shall attempt to remove it. If
78 this fails for any reason, mv shall write a diagnostic message to
79 standard error, do nothing more with the current source_file, and
80 go on to any remaining source_files.
81 5. The file hierarchy rooted in source_file shall be duplicated as a
83 file hierarchy rooted in the destination path. If source_file or
84 any of the files below it in the hierarchy are symbolic links, the
85 links themselves shall be duplicated, including their contents,
86 rather than any files to which they refer. The following charac‐
87 teristics of each file in the file hierarchy shall be duplicated:
88 * The time of last data modification and time of last access
90 * The user ID and group ID
92 * The file mode
94 If the user ID, group ID, or file mode of a regular file cannot be
96 duplicated, the file mode bits S_ISUID and S_ISGID shall not be dupli‐
97 cated.
98 When files are duplicated to another file system, the implementation
100 may require that the process invoking mv has read access to each file
101 being duplicated.
102 If the duplication of the file hierarchy fails for any reason, mv shall
104 write a diagnostic message to standard error, do nothing more with the
105 current source_file, and go on to any remaining source_files.
106 If the duplication of the file characteristics fails for any reason, mv
108 shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, but this failure
109 shall not cause mv to modify its exit status.
110 6. The file hierarchy rooted in source_file shall be removed. If this
112 fails for any reason, mv shall write a diagnostic message to the
113 standard error, do nothing more with the current source_file, and
114 go on to any remaining source_files.
115
117 The mv utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
118 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
119 The following options shall be supported:
121 -f Do not prompt for confirmation if the destination path exists.
123 Any previous occurrence of the -i option is ignored.
124 -i Prompt for confirmation if the destination path exists. Any pre‐
126 vious occurrence of the -f option is ignored.
127 Specifying more than one of the -f or -i options shall not be consid‐
130 ered an error. The last option specified shall determine the behavior
131 of mv.
132
134 The following operands shall be supported:
135 source_file
137 A pathname of a file or directory to be moved.
138 target_file
140 A new pathname for the file or directory being moved.
141 target_dir
143 A pathname of an existing directory into which to move the input
144 files.
145
148 The standard input shall be used to read an input line in response to
149 each prompt specified in the STDERR section. Otherwise, the standard
150 input shall not be used.
151
153 The input files specified by each source_file operand can be of any
154 file type.
155
157 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of mv:
158 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
160 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
161 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
162 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
163 to determine the values of locale categories.)
164 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
166 the other internationalization variables.
167 LC_COLLATE
169 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence
171 classes, and multi-character collating elements used in the
172 extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale key‐
173 word in the LC_MESSAGES category.
174 LC_CTYPE
176 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
177 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
178 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files),
179 the behavior of character classes used in the extended regular
180 expression defined for the yesexpr locale keyword in the LC_MES‐
181 SAGES category.
182 LC_MESSAGES
184 Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses
185 that should be used to affect the format and contents of diag‐
186 nostic messages written to standard error.
187 NLSPATH
189 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
190 LC_MESSAGES .
191
194 Default.
195
197 Not used.
198
200 Prompts shall be written to the standard error under the conditions
201 specified in the DESCRIPTION section. The prompts shall contain the
202 destination pathname, but their format is otherwise unspecified. Oth‐
203 erwise, the standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
204
206 The output files may be of any file type.
207
209 None.
210
212 The following exit values shall be returned:
213 0 All input files were moved successfully.
215 >0 An error occurred.
217
220 If the copying or removal of source_file is prematurely terminated by a
221 signal or error, mv may leave a partial copy of source_file at the
222 source or destination. The mv utility shall not modify both source_file
223 and the destination path simultaneously; termination at any point shall
224 leave either source_file or the destination path complete.
225 The following sections are informative.
227
229 Some implementations mark for update the st_ctime field of renamed
230 files and some do not. Applications which make use of the st_ctime
231 field may behave differently with respect to renamed files unless they
232 are designed to allow for either behavior.
233
235 If the current directory contains only files a (of any type defined by
236 the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001), b (also of any
237 type), and a directory c:
238 mv a b c
241 mv c d
242 results with the original files a and b residing in the directory d in
244 the current directory.
245
247 Early proposals diverged from the SVID and BSD historical practice in
248 that they required that when the destination path exists, the -f option
249 is not specified, and input is not a terminal, mv fails. This was done
250 for compatibility with cp. The current text returns to historical prac‐
251 tice. It should be noted that this is consistent with the rename()
252 function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
253 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, which does not require write permission on the
254 target.
255 For absolute clarity, paragraph (1), describing the behavior of mv when
257 prompting for confirmation, should be interpreted in the following man‐
258 ner:
259 if (exists AND (NOT f_option) AND
262 ((not_writable AND input_is_terminal) OR i_option))
263 The -i option exists on BSD systems, giving applications and users a
265 way to avoid accidentally unlinking files when moving others. When the
266 standard input is not a terminal, the 4.3 BSD mv deletes all existing
267 destination paths without prompting, even when -i is specified; this is
268 inconsistent with the behavior of the 4.3 BSD cp utility, which always
269 generates an error when the file is unwritable and the standard input
270 is not a terminal. The standard developers decided that use of -i is a
271 request for interaction, so when the destination path exists, the util‐
272 ity takes instructions from whatever responds to standard input.
273 The rename() function is able to move directories within the same file
275 system. Some historical versions of mv have been able to move directo‐
276 ries, but not to a different file system. The standard developers con‐
277 sidered that this was an annoying inconsistency, so this volume of
278 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 requires directories to be able to be moved even
279 across file systems. There is no -R option to confirm that moving a
280 directory is actually intended, since such an option was not required
281 for moving directories in historical practice. Requiring the applica‐
282 tion to specify it sometimes, depending on the destination, seemed just
283 as inconsistent. The semantics of the rename() function were preserved
284 as much as possible. For example, mv is not permitted to "rename" files
285 to or from directories, even though they might be empty and removable.
286 Historic implementations of mv did not exit with a non-zero exit status
288 if they were unable to duplicate any file characteristics when moving a
289 file across file systems, nor did they write a diagnostic message for
290 the user. The former behavior has been preserved to prevent scripts
291 from breaking; a diagnostic message is now required, however, so that
292 users are alerted that the file characteristics have changed.
293 The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the
295 general nature of the contents of prompts are specified because imple‐
296 mentations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on his‐
297 torical implementations. Therefore, an application not using the -f
298 option or using the -i option relies on the system to provide the most
299 suitable dialog directly with the user, based on the behavior speci‐
300 fied.
301 When mv is dealing with a single file system and source_file is a sym‐
303 bolic link, the link itself is moved as a consequence of the dependence
304 on the rename() functionality, per the DESCRIPTION. Across file sys‐
305 tems, this has to be made explicit.
306
308 None.
309
311 cp, ln, the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, rename()
312
314 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
315 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
316 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
317 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
318 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
319 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
320 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
321 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
322 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
323IEEE/The Open Group 2003 MV(1P)