INSTALL(1)                BSD General Commands Manual               INSTALL(1)

NAME
     install -- install binaries

SYNOPSIS
     install [-bCcMpSsv] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-g group] [-m mode] [-o owner] file1 file2
     install [-bCcMpSsv] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-g group] [-m mode] [-o owner] file1 ... fileN directory
     install -d [-v] [-g group] [-m mode] [-o owner] directory ...

DESCRIPTION
     The file(s) are copied to the target file or directory.  If the destination is a directory, then the
     file is copied into directory with its original filename.  If the target file already exists, it is
     either renamed to file.old if the -b option is given or overwritten if permissions allow.  An alternate
     backup suffix may be specified via the -B option's argument.

     The options are as follows:

     -B suffix
             Use suffix as the backup suffix if -b is given.

     -b      Back up any existing files before overwriting them by renaming them to file.old.  See -B for
             specifying a different backup suffix.

     -C      Copy the file.  If the target file already exists and the files are the same, then don't change
             the modification time of the target.

     -c      Copy the file.  This is actually the default.  The -c option is only included for backwards
             compatibility.

     -d      Create directories.  Missing parent directories are created as required.

     -f      Specify the target's file flags; see chflags(1) for a list of possible flags and their mean-
             ings.

     -g      Specify a group.  A numeric GID is allowed.

     -M      Disable all use of mmap(2).

     -m      Specify an alternate mode.  The default mode is set to rwxr-xr-x (0755).  The specified mode
             may be either an octal or symbolic value; see chmod(1) for a description of possible mode val-
             ues.

     -o      Specify an owner.  A numeric UID is allowed.

     -p      Preserve the modification time.  Copy the file, as if the -C (compare and copy) option is spec-
             ified, except if the target file doesn't already exist or is different, then preserve the modi-
             fication time of the file.

     -S      Safe copy.  Normally, install unlinks an existing target before installing the new file.  With
             the -S flag a temporary file is used and then renamed to be the target.  The reason this is
             safer is that if the copy or rename fails, the existing target is left untouched.

     -s      install exec's the command strip(1) to strip binaries so that install can be portable over a
             large number of systems and binary types.

     -v      Causes install to show when -C actually installs something.

     By default, install preserves all file flags, with the exception of the ``nodump'' flag.

     The install utility attempts to prevent moving a file onto itself.

     Installing /dev/null creates an empty file.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The install utility exits 0 on success, and 1 otherwise.

FILES
     INS@XXXX  If either -S option is specified, or the -C or -p option is used in conjuction with the -s
               option, temporary files named INS@XXXX, where XXXX is decided by mkstemp(3), are created in
               the target directory.

COMPATIBILITY
     Historically install moved files by default.  The default was changed to copy in FreeBSD 4.4.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), chgrp(1), chmod(1), cp(1), mv(1), strip(1), mmap(2), chown(8)

HISTORY
     The install utility appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
     Temporary files may be left in the target directory if install exits abnormally.

     File flags cannot be set by fchflags(2) over a NFS file system.  Other file systems do not have a con-
     cept of flags.  install will only warn when flags could not be set on a file system that does not sup-
     port them.

     install with -v falsely says a file is copied when -C snaps hard links.

BSD                               May 7, 2001                              BSD