mv [-fi] source_file target_file
mv [-fi] source_file... target_file
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
The following operands shall be supported:
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.
The input files specified by each source_file operand can be of any file type.
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of mv:
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.
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.
The output files may be of any file type.
The following exit values shall be returned:
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.
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.
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.
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.
cp , ln , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, rename()