Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

install

Synopsis

install [options] file1 file2
install [options] files directory
install -d [options] [file] directory
                  

Used primarily in makefiles to update files. install copies files into user-specified directories. Similar to cp, with additional functionality regarding inode-based information like uid, gid, mode, flags, etc.

Options

-b

Create backup copies of existing target files by renaming existing file as file.old. See -B for specifying extension name (i.e., default is .old)

-B suffix

Use suffix as a filename extension when -b is in effect.

-c

Copy the specified file(s). This is the default behavior of the install command.

-C

Copy the file. Don’t change the modification timestamp if the target exists and is the same as the source.

-d

Create any missing directories.

-f flags

Set the file flags of the target file(s). Flags are a comma-separated list of keywords. See the chflags(1) manpage for further details.

-g gid or groupname

Set group ID of target file to group (privileged users only or user is member of specified group).

-m mode

Set the mode of the target files to mode. The default is 0755, or rwxr-xr-x.

-M

Don’t use mmap(2).

-o uid or username

Set ownership to uid or username or, if unspecified, to root (privileged users only).

-s

Strip binaries to enhance portability.

-S

Safe copy. The source file is copied to temp file and then renamed. The default behavior is to first unlink the existing target before the source is copied.

-v

Verbose. Install will print symbolic ...