INSTALL(1)

NAME
install - install binaries

SYNOPSIS
install [-Ubcprs] [-B suffix] [-D destdir] [-f flags] [-M metalog] [-T tags] [-a command] [-m mode] [-N dbdir] [-o owner] [-g group] [-l linkflags] [-h hash] [-S stripflag] file1 file2
install [-Ubcprs] [-B suffix] [-D destdir] [-f flags] [-M metalog] [-T tags] [-a command] [-m mode] [-N dbdir] [-o owner] [-g group] [-l linkflags] [-h hash] [-S stripflag] file1 ... fileN directory
install -d [-Up] [-D destdir] [-M metalog] [-T tags] [-a command] [-m mode] [-N dbdir] [-o owner] [-g group] directory ...

DESCRIPTION
The file(s) are copied (or linked if the -l option is specified) 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.

-a command
    Run command on the target after installation and stripping (-s), but before ownership, permissions or timestamps are set and before renaming (-r) occurs. command is invoked via the sh(1) shell, allowing a single -a argument be to specified to install which the shell can then tokenize.

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

-B suffix
    Use suffix as the backup suffix if -b is given. If suffix contains 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 is the default behavior; the flag is maintained for backwards compatibility only.

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

-D destdir
    Specify the DESTDIR (top of the file hierarchy) that the items are installed in to. If -M metalog is in use, a leading string of “destdir” will be removed from the file names logged to the metalog. This option does not affect where the actual files are installed.

-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.

-h hash
    When copying, calculate the digest of the files with hash to store in the -M metalog. Supported digests:

    none
        No hash. This is the default.

    md5 The MD5 cryptographic message digest.

    rmd160
        The RMD-160 cryptographic message digest.

    sha1
        The SHA-1 cryptographic message digest.

-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 (symbolic), m (mixed). Absolute and relative have effect only for symbolic links. Mixed links are hard links for files on the same filesystem, symbolic otherwise.

-M metalog
    Write the metadata associated with each item installed to metalog in an mtree(8) “full path” specification line. The metadata includes: the file name and file type, and depending upon other options, the owner, group, file flags, modification time, and tags.

-m mode
    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.

-N dbdir
    Use the user database text file master.passwd and group database text file group from dbdir, rather than using the results from the system's getpwnam(3) and getgrnam(3) (and related) library calls.

-o owner
    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 install 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.

-T tags
    Specify the mtree(8) tags to write out for the file when using -M metalog.

-U  Indicate that install is running unprivileged, and that it should not try to change the owner, the group, or the file flags of the destination. The information that would have been updated can be stored in a log file with -M metalog.

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

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

Installing /dev/null creates an empty file.

EXIT STATUS
The install utility exits 0 on success, and 0 if an error occurs.

ENVIRONMENT

STRIP
    The program used to strip installed binaries when the -s option is used. If unspecified, /usr/bin/strip is used.

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

HISTORY
The install utility appeared in 4.2BSD.