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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.

SEE ALSO         top

       rename(2)

       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mv>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mv invocation'

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-9.7.tar.xz fetched from
       ⟨http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/⟩ on 2025-08-11.  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 [email protected]

GNU coreutils 9.7               April 2025                          MV(1)

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

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