4.3BSD-Reno/src/bin/mv/mv.1

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.\"     @(#)mv.1	6.5 (Berkeley) 7/24/90
.\"
.Dd July 24, 1990
.Dt MV 1
.Os BSD 4.4
.Sh NAME
.Nm mv
.Nd move files
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm mv
.Op Fl f Li \&| Fl i
.Ar source target
.Nm mv
.Op  Fl f Li \&| Fl i
.Ar source ... source directory
.De
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Pp
In its first form, the
.Nm mv
utility renames the file named by the
.Ar source
operand to the destination path named by the
.Ar target
operand.
This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already
existing directory.
.Pp
In its second form,
.Nm mv
moves each file named by a
.Ar source
operand to a destination file in the existing directory named by the
.Ar directory
operand.
The destination path for each operand is the pathname produced by the
concatenation of the last operand, a slash, and the final pathname
component of the named file.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Tw Ds
.Tp Fl f
Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination
path.
(The
.Fl i
option is ignored if the
.Fl f
option is specified.)
.Tp Fl i
Causes
.Nm mv
to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would
overwrite an existing file.
If the response from the standard input begins with the character ``y'',
the move is attempted.
.Tp
.Pp
It is an error for either the
.Ar source
operand or the destination path to specify a directory unless both do.
.Pp
If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing,
.Nm mv
prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the
.Fl i
option.
.Pp
As the
.Xr rename  2
call does not work across file systems,
.Nm mv
uses
.Xr cp  1
and
.Xr rm  1
to accomplish the move.
The effect is equivalent to:
.Pp
.Ds I
rm -f destination_path && \e
\tcp -pr source_file destination && \e
\trm -rf source_file
.De
.Pp
The
.Nm mv
utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cp 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm mv
function is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible.