mv-(1) manual page

Name

mv – move (rename) files

Synopsis

mv [OPTION]… [-T] SOURCE DEST
mv [OPTION]… SOURCEDIRECTORY
mv [OPTION]… -t DIRECTORY SOURCE

Description

Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

–backup[=CONTROL]
make a backup of each existing destination file
-b
like –backup but does not accept an argument
-f, –force
do not prompt before overwriting
-i, –interactive
prompt before overwrite
–strip-trailing-slashes
remove any trailing slashes from each SOURCE argument
-S, –suffix=SUFFIX
override the usual backup suffix
-t, –target-directory=DIRECTORY
move all SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY
-T, –no-target-directory
treat DEST as a normal file
-u, –update
move only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing
-v, –verbose
explain what is being done
–help
display this help and exit
–version
output version information and exit

The backup suffix is ‘~’, unless set with –suffix or SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX. The version control method may be selected via the –backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. Here are the values:

none, off
never make backups (even if –backup is given)
numbered, t
make numbered backups
existing, nil
numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
simple, never
always make simple backups

Author

Written by Mike Parker, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.

Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html >
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

The full documentation for mv is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and mv programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info mv

should give you access to the complete manual.