NAME
install
—
install binaries
SYNOPSIS
install |
[-bCcDdFpSs ] [-B
suffix] [-f
flags] [-g
group] [-m
mode] [-o
owner] source ... target
... |
DESCRIPTION
The source file(s) are copied to the
target file or directory. 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. If the
-d
option is given, target
directories are created, and no files are copied.
The options are as follows:
-B
suffix- Use suffix as the backup suffix if
-b
is given. -b
- Backup 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 all leading components of the target before installing into it.
-d
- Create directories. Missing parent directories are created as required.
This option cannot be used with the
-B
,-b
,-C
,-c
,-f
,-p
,-S
, or-s
options. -F
- Flush the file's contents to disk. When copying a file, use the fsync(2) function to synchronize the installed file's contents with the on-disk version.
-f
flags- Specify the target's file flags. (See chflags(1) for a list of possible flags and their meanings.)
-g
group- Specify a group. A numeric GID is allowed.
-m
mode- 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 values.
-o
owner- 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 specified, except if the target file doesn't already exist or is different, then preserve the modification 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 /usr/bin/strip to strip binaries so that install can be portable over a large number of systems and binary types. If the environment variableSTRIP
is set, it is used instead.
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.
ENVIRONMENT
STRIP
- For an alternate strip(1) program to run. Default is /usr/bin/strip.
FILES
- INS@XXXXXXXXXX
- If either
-S
option is specified, or the-C
or-p
option is used in conjunction with the-s
option, temporary files named INS@XXXXXXXXXX, where XXXXXXXXXX is decided by mkstemp(3), are created in the target directory.
EXIT STATUS
The install
utility exits 0 on
success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
chflags(1), chgrp(1), chmod(1), cp(1), mv(1), strip(1), chown(8)
HISTORY
The install
utility appeared in
4.2BSD.
CAVEATS
The -C
, -D
,
-F
, -p
, and
-S
flags are non-standard and should not be relied
upon for portability.
Temporary files may be left in the target directory if
install
exits abnormally.