MV(1) General Commands Manual MV(1)

mv — move files

mv [-f | -i | -n] [-hv] source target

mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

In its first form, the mv utility renames the file named by the source operand to the destination path named by the target operand. This form is assumed when the last operand does not name an already existing directory.

In its second form, mv moves each file named by a source operand to a destination file in the existing directory named by the directory operand. The destination path for each operand is the pathname produced by the concatenation of the last operand, a slash, and the final pathname component of the named file.

The following options are available:

Do not prompt for confirmation before overwriting the destination path. (The -f option overrides any previous -i or -n options.)
If the target operand is a symbolic link to a directory, do not follow it. This causes the mv utility to rename the file source to the destination path target rather than moving source into the directory referenced by target.
Cause mv to write a prompt to standard error before moving a file that would overwrite an existing file. If the response from the standard input begins with the character ‘y’ or ‘Y’, the move is attempted. (The -i option overrides any previous -f or -n options.)
Do not overwrite an existing file. (The -n option overrides any previous -f or -i options.)
Cause mv to be verbose, showing files after they are moved.

It is an error for the source operand to specify a directory if the target exists and is not a directory.

If the destination path does not have a mode which permits writing, mv prompts the user for confirmation as specified for the -i option.

As the rename(2) call does not work across file systems, mv uses cp(1) and rm(1) to accomplish the move. The effect is equivalent to:

rm -f destination_path && \
cp -pRP source_file destination && \
rm -rf source_file

The mv utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

The command "mv dir/afile dir" will abort with an error message.

In legacy mode, the command "mv dir/afile dir" will fail silently, returning an exit code of 0.

For more information about legacy mode, see compat(5).

Rename file foo to bar, overwriting bar if it already exists:

$ mv -f foo bar

The -h, -n, and -v options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended.

The mv utility now supports HFS+ Finder and Extended Attributes and resource forks. The mv utility will no longer strip resource forks off of HFS files. For an alternative method, refer to cp(1).

cp(1), rm(1), symlink(7)

The mv utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

A mv command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

March 15, 2013 macOS 15.2