install(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

INSTALL(1)                  NetBSD Reference Manual                 INSTALL(1)


NAME

     install - install binaries


SYNOPSIS

     install [-bcps] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-m mode] [-o owner] [-g group]
             [-l linkflags] [-S stripflag] file1 file2
     install [-bcprs] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-m mode] [-o owner] [-g group]
             [-l linkflags] [-S stripflag] file1 ... fileN directory
     install -pd [-m mode] [-o owner] [-g group] directory ...


DESCRIPTION

     The file(s) are moved (copied if the -c option is specified, or linked if
     the -l option is specified) to the target file or directory.  If the des-
     tination is a directory, then the file is moved into directory with its
     original filename.  If the target file already exists, it is either re-
     named 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.

     -b      Backup any existing files before overwriting them by renaming
             them to file.old. See -B for specifying a different backup suf-
             fix.

     -B suffix
             Use suffix as the backup suffix if -b is given. If suffix con-
             tains a '%' sign, a numbered backup will be performed, and the
             %-pattern will be expanded using sprintf(3), given an integer
             counter as the backup number.  The counter used starts from 0,
             and the first available name resulting from the expansion is
             used.

     -c      Copy the file.  This flag turns off the default behavior of in-
             stall where it deletes the original file after creating the tar-
             get.

     -f      Specify the target's file flags.  (See chflags(1) for a list of
             possible flags and their meanings.)

     -g      Specify a group.

     -m      Specify an alternative 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 values.

     -l linkflags
             Instead of copying the file make a link to the source. The type
             of the link is determined by the linkflags argument. Valid
             linkflags are: a (absolute), r (relative), h (hard), s (symbol-
             ic), m (mixed). Absolute and relative have effect only for sym-
             bolic links. Mixed links are hard links for files on the same
             filesystem, symbolic otherwise.

     -o      Specify an owner.

     -p      Preserve the source files access and modification times.

     -r      Install to a temporary file and then rename the file to its final
             destination name. This can be used for precious files, to avoid
             truncation of the original when error conditions (filesystem full
             etc.) occur.

     -s      install exec's the command strip(1) to strip binaries so that in-
             stall can be portable over a large number of systems and binary
             types.  If the environment variable STRIP is set, it is used as
             the strip(1) program.

     -S stripflags
             install passes stripflags as option arguments to strip(1).  When
             -S is used, strip(1) is invoked via the sh(1) shell, allowing a
             single -S argument be to specified to install which the shell can
             then tokenize. Normally, install invokes strip(1) directly. This
             flag implies -s.

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

     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.

     Upon successful completion a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value
     of 1 is returned.


SEE ALSO

     chflags(1), chgrp(1), chmod(1), cp(1), mv(1), strip(1), chown(8)


HISTORY

     The install utility appeared in 4.2BSD.

NetBSD 1.4                       June 6, 1993                                2