install

install [options] file [directories]

Used primarily in makefiles to update files. install tries to locate an old version of file by searching user-supplied directories (or default directories such as /bin or /etc). file is then copied to the directory, overwriting the older version. Normally, if no older file exists, install does nothing.

Options

-c dir

Conditional copy; if file already exists in dir, do nothing; otherwise, copy file to dir.

-f dir

Forced copy; copy file to dir, whether or not file is already there.

-g group

Set group ID of new file to group (privileged users only).

-i

When searching for file, ignore default directories but search specified directories. Normally, both sets are searched (with user-supplied directories searched before defaults). -c and -f are invalid with -i.

-m mode

Set permissions of new file to mode.

-n dir

Place file in dir if it's not in any of the default directories.

-o

Save old version of file in OLDfile instead of overwriting it.

-s

Suppress all messages except error messages.

-u user

Set owner of new file to user.