Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

mv, unix, contents, history, options, name, clashing, moving, versus, copying, and, removing, examples, see, also, references, external, links,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (79), file (31), and (27), directory (24), unix (20), command (19), from (14), system (13), shell (13), files (13), edit (12), for (12), that (12), utilities (11), move (11), #moving (10), existing (10), foo (9), bar (9), subdir (9), are (9), this (8), commands (8), wikipedia (7), version (7), not (7), page (6), ibm (6), original (6), with (5), gnu (5), user (5), open (5), following (5), removed (5), directories (5), name (5), rename (5), contents (4), search (4), was (4), retrieved (4), link (4), read (4), write (4), general (4), single (4), links (4), posix (4), than (4), moved (4), being (4), copying (4), path (4), permission (4), source (4), both (4), implementation (4), overwrite (4), option (4), history (4), hide (4), sidebar (4), view (3), developers (3), text (3), may (3), 2026 (3), categories (3), different (3), inferno (3), cksum (3), more (3), manual (3), specification (3), pdf (3), archived (3), log (3), since (3), mnt (3), bkup (3), bes (3), same (3), each (3), copy (3), moves (3), renames (3), one (3), parent (3), new (3), number (3), changes (3), operation (3), target (3), within (3), removing (3), support (3), options (3), items (3), tools (3), main (3), topic (2), languages (2), toggle (2), table (2), contact (2), about (2), privacy (2), policy (2), available (2), terms (2), using (2), license (2), short (2), description (2), wikidata (2), qshell (2), operating (2), sus2008 (2), who (2), uname (2), true (2), test (2), tee (2), sleep (2), pwd (2), printf (2), nice (2), logname (2), false (2), expr (2), env (2), echo (2), dirname (2), basename (2), uniq (2), tail (2), split (2), sort (2), paste (2), join (2), head (2), fold (2), cut (2), csplit (2), comm (2), cat (2), touch (2), rmdir (2), mkdir (2), chgrp (2), chown (2), chmod (2), programs (2), line (2), core (2), list (2), alias (2), builtins (2), talk (2), type (2), group (2), reference (2), has (2), guide (2), external (2), 2020 (2), unxutils (2), multics (2), references (2), renaming (2), see (2), also (2), var (2), copied (2), instead (2), then (2), mounted (2), two (2), into (2), assumes (2), beforehand (2), result (2), examples (2), old (2), because (2), required (2), only (2), information (2), modified (2), upon (2), implemented (2), hard (2), versus (2), when (2), specifies (2), default (2), switch (2), overwriting (2), destination (2), writable (2), prompts (2), confirm (2), clashing (2), these (2), part (2), must (2), portability (2), overrides (2), preceding (2), implementations (2), content (2), item (2), platform (2), 1971 (2), appearance (2), upload (2), article (2), create (2), account (2), donate (2), menu (2), add, mobile, cookie, statement, statistics, code, conduct, legal, safety, contacts, disclaimers, under, additional, apply, site, you, agree, registered, trademark, non, profit, organization, wikimedia, foundation, inc, use, creative, commons, attribution, sharealike, rendered, parsoid, last, edited, february, utc, hidden, articles, https, org, index, php, title, mv_, oldid, 1339861202, yes, whoami, users, uptime, unlink, tty, timeout, stty, stdbuf, stat, seq, runcon, readlink, printenv, pinky, pathchk, nproc, nohup, hostid, groups, factor, date, chroot, arch, unexpand, tsort, tac, sum, shuf, sha1sum, ptx, numfmt, md5sum, fmt, expand, base64, base32, b2sum, vdir, truncate, sync, shred, realpath, mktemp, mknod, mkfifo, install, dircolors, dir, chcon, interface, standard, cal, miscellaneous, yacc, strip, make, lex, ctags, software, development, man, documentation, grep, find, searching, wait, unset, xargs, troff, strings, sed, patch, iconv, diff, awk, processing, tput, mesg, exit, environment, time, kill, crontab, processes, umask, pax, fuser, cmp, chattr, wikibook, 1980s, motivation, programming, 2006, sourceforge, net, native, win32, ports, some, mankier, com, linux, freebsd, 2000, deleting, ren, creating, copies, logs, takes, longer, expected, frequently, will, expands, treats, wildcard, character, home, above, except, out, individually, all, once, after, entire, finished, volume, example, refers, mount, point, over, which, resulting, subdirectory, requires, addition, permissions, modify, parents, entry, such, significantly, simpler, faster, does, change, cataloguing, changed, entries, created, erased, another, fail, entirely, automatically, performed, atomic, delete, action, actual, details, dependent, inode, generally, efficiently, platforms, added, deleted, data, accessed, conformant, implements, call, ambiguity, arises, handles, inside, tries, inverse, makes, explicit, accidental, can, prevented, long, format, alternatively, overwrites, older, asks, confirmation, conflict, prevent, backup, interactive, update, clobber, but, run, terminal, unless, included, clobbered, later, basis, compliant, sus, guidelines, orce, nteractive, would, most, provided, named, contracted, appeared, became, issue, 1987, written, mike, parker, david, mackenzie, jim, meyering, via, ported, windows, derived, program, binaries, linked, otherwise, specifically, between, have, modifies, timestamp, unlinked, gplv3, coreutils, cross, like, november, years, ago, release, various, commercial, bell, laboratories, dennis, ritchie, ken, thompson, authors, free, encyclopedia, wikibooks, other, projects, printable, download, print, export, legacy, parser, get, shortened, url, cite, permanent, related, what, here, actions, english, tiếng, việt, українська, türkçe, svenska, slovenčina, русский, română, português, polski, nederlands, lietuvių, lombard, 한국어, ქართული, 日本語, italiano, bahasa, indonesia, հայերեն, magyar, हिन्दी, עברית, français, فارسی, español, ελληνικά, deutsch, čeština, català, беларуская, azərbaycanca, asturianu, العربية, top, personal, special, pages, recent, community, portal, learn, help, contribute, random, current, events, navigation, jump,

Text of the page (random words):
mv unix wikipedia jump to content main menu main menu move to sidebar hide navigation main page contents current events random article about wikipedia contact us contribute help learn to edit community portal recent changes upload file special pages search search appearance donate create account log in personal tools donate create account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 history 2 options 3 name clashing 4 moving versus copying and removing 5 examples 6 see also 7 references 8 external links toggle the table of contents mv unix 33 languages العربية asturianu azərbaycanca беларуская català čeština deutsch ελληνικά español فارسی français עברית हिन्दी magyar հայերեն bahasa indonesia italiano 日本語 ქართული 한국어 lombard lietuvių nederlands polski português română русский slovenčina svenska türkçe українська tiếng việt 中文 edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikibooks wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia shell command for moving files mv original authors ken thompson dennis ritchie at t bell laboratories developers various open source and commercial developers release november 3 1971 54 years ago 1971 11 03 operating system unix unix like inferno ibm i platform cross platform type command license coreutils gplv3 mv is a shell command for renaming and moving files and directories if both items are on the same file system the command renames otherwise items are copied to the destination and the old items are removed more specifically unlinked to move between two directories the user must have write permission for both because the command modifies the content of both for a rename an item s timestamp is not modified on unix implementations derived from at t unix cp ln and mv are implemented as a single program with hard linked binaries history edit multics provided a file move rename command named move a version with the contracted name mv 1 appeared in version 1 unix 2 and became part of the x open portability guide issue 2 of 1987 3 the version in gnu core utilities was written by mike parker david mackenzie and jim meyering 4 the command is available in windows via unxutils 5 the command was ported to ibm i 6 options edit most implementations support i i nteractive the command prompts the user to confirm moving each file that would overwrite an existing file overrides a preceding f option f f orce overwriting existing files overrides a preceding i option these options are a part of x open portability guidelines later the basis of posix and sus a posix compliant implementation must support these 7 name clashing edit when a file is moved to a path that specifies an existing file the existing file is clobbered by default if the existing file is not writable but is in a directory that is writable the command prompts the user to confirm overwrite if run from a terminal unless the f option is included accidental overwriting can be prevented using the gnu implementation n long format no clobber option alternatively u update only overwrites destination files that are older than source files i interactive asks for confirmation upon each name conflict and b backup renames target files to prevent overwrite ambiguity arises when a file is moved to a path that specifies an existing directory by default mv handles this by moving the file inside the directory the gnu implementation has a t switch for that tries to overwrite the directory instead an inverse t makes the move to directory operation explicit 4 moving versus copying and removing edit moving files within the same file system is generally implemented more efficiently than copying the file and then removing the original on platforms that do not support the rename system call a new hard link is added to the new directory and the original one is deleted the data of the file is not accessed a posix conformant system implements rename such an operation is significantly simpler and faster than a copy and move operation the file s inode number i number does not change no permission is required to read the file since only cataloguing information is changed since the source and target directories are being modified entries are being created within the target directory and erased from within the source directory write permission in both directories is required moving files from one file system to another may fail entirely or may be automatically performed as an atomic copy and delete action the actual details are dependent upon the implementation moving a directory from one parent to a different parent directory requires write permission in the directory being moved in addition to permissions to modify the old and new parents this is because the i number for the directory entry an alias for the parent of a directory changes as a result of the rename examples edit the following renames file or directory foo to bar this assumes that bar is not an existing directory beforehand mv foo bar the following moves the file or directory foo into the existing subdirectory subdir so that the result is at path subdir foo mv foo subdir the following moves the file or directory foo into directory subdir with name bar so that the resulting is path subdir bar this assumes that subdir bar is not an existing directory beforehand mv foo subdir bar the following moves two files directories foo and bar to existing directory subdir mv foo bar subdir copy be 03 to the bes directory of the mounted volume bkup then be 03 is removed in this example mnt refers to the directory the mount point over which a file system is mounted mv be 03 mnt bkup bes same as above except each file moved out of be 03 is removed individually instead of all being removed at once after the entire copying is finished mv be 03 mnt bkup bes the following takes longer than expected if var is on a different file system as it frequently is since files will be copied and removed the shell expands to the user s home directory and treats as a wildcard character mv var log z logs see also edit cp unix shell command that copies file list of posix commands ln unix shell command for creating a link file move command shell command for moving files ren command shell command for renaming a file or directory rm unix shell command for deleting files references edit multics commands archived from the original on 2000 08 16 retrieved 2026 02 03 mv 1 freebsd general commands manual mv move files shell and utilities reference the single unix specification version 5 from the open group 1 2 mv 1 linux general commands manual from mankier com native win32 ports of some gnu utilities unxutils sourceforge net archived from the original on 2006 02 09 retrieved 2026 02 03 ibm ibm system i version 7 2 programming qshell pdf ibm archived pdf from the original on 2020 09 18 retrieved 2020 09 05 single unix specification 1980s motivation external links edit the wikibook guide to unix has a page on the topic of commands file system utilities mv mv shell and utilities reference the single unix specification version 5 from the open group mv 1 inferno general commands manual v t e unix command line utilities and shell builtins file system cat chattr chmod chown chgrp cksum cmp cp dd du df file fuser ln ls mkdir mv pax pwd rm rmdir split tee touch type umask processes at bg crontab fg kill nice ps time user environment env exit logname mesg talk tput uname who write text processing awk basename comm csplit cut diff dirname ed ex fold head iconv join m4 more nl paste patch printf read sed sort strings tail tr troff uniq vi wc xargs shell builtins alias cd echo test unset wait searching find grep documentation man software development ar ctags lex make nm strip yacc miscellaneous bc cal dc expr lp od sleep true and false categories standard unix programs unix sus2008 utilities list v t e gnu core utilities command line interface programs file system chcon chmod chown chgrp cksum cp dd df dir dircolors install ln ls mkdir mkfifo mknod mktemp mv realpath rm rmdir shred sync touch truncate vdir text utilities b2sum base32 base64 cat cksum comm csplit cut expand fmt fold head join md5sum nl numfmt od paste ptx pr sha1sum shuf sort split sum tac tail tr tsort unexpand uniq wc shell utilities arch basename chroot date dirname du echo env expr factor false groups hostid id link logname nice nohup nproc pathchk pinky printenv printf pwd readlink runcon seq sleep stat stdbuf stty tee test timeout true tty uname unlink uptime users who whoami yes retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title mv_ unix oldid 1339861202 categories unix sus2008 utilities inferno operating system commands ibm i qshell commands hidden categories articles with short description short description is different from wikidata this page was last edited on 22 february 2026 at 18 27 utc page was rendered with parsoid text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike 4 0 license additional terms may apply by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc a non profit organization privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia legal safety contacts code of conduct developers statistics cookie statement mobile view search search toggle the table of contents mv unix 33 languages add topic