mv(1) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| AUTHOR \| REPORTING BUGS \| COPYRIGHT \| SEE ALSO \| COLOPHON

 MV(1) User Commands MV(1)

NAME top

 mv - move (rename) files

SYNOPSIS top

 mv [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST mv [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY mv [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY SOURCE...

DESCRIPTION top

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 --debug explain how a file is copied. Implies -v --exchange exchange source and destination -f, --force do not prompt before overwriting -i, --interactive prompt before overwrite -n, --no-clobber do not overwrite an existing file If you specify more than one of -i, -f, -n, only the final one takes effect. --no-copy do not copy if renaming fails --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 --update[=UPDATE] control which existing files are updated; UPDATE={all,none,none-fail,older(default)} -u equivalent to --update[=older]. See below -v, --verbose explain what is being done -Z, --context set SELinux security context of destination file to default type --help display this help and exit --version output version information and exit UPDATE controls which existing files in the destination are replaced. 'all' is the default operation when an --update option is not specified, and results in all existing files in the destination being replaced. 'none' is like the --no-clobber option, in that no files in the destination are replaced, and skipped files do not induce a failure. 'none-fail' also ensures no files are replaced in the destination, but any skipped files are diagnosed and induce a failure. 'older' is the default operation when --update is specified, and results in files being replaced if they're older than the corresponding source file. 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 top

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

REPORTING BUGS top

 GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT top

 Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.

COLOPHON top

 This page is part of the coreutils (basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities) project. Information about the project can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩. This page was obtained from the tarball coreutils-9.6.tar.xz fetched from ⟨http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/⟩ on 2025-02-02. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org GNU coreutils 9.6 January 2025 MV(1)

Pages that refer to this page: rename(1), sshfs(1), rename(2), inotify(7), symlink(7), lsof(8)