INSTALLIT(1)

💖 INSTALLIT(1) — General Commands Manual 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the installit page, it's a file/directory installation tool and it's literally so useful, come sit with me 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

installit — file/directory installation tool 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

installit [ -o owner ] [ -g group ] [ -O owner ] [ -G group ] [ -m mode
] [ -b backup ] [ -s ] [ -t ] source destination

yes she's got a lot of flags, but we're gonna go through every single one, no skipping, periodt ✨

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So like, what does installit even do? She puts a copy of source into the specified destination. That's it, that's the whole vibe. 🦋

But wait, there's a little plot twist depending on what source is:

• If source is a period (.), then destination is taken to be the name of a directory that should be created. New folder era 👑
• Otherwise, source is taken to name an existing file, and destination may be either a file or a directory — and it gets interpreted according to the same rules as cp(1). iykyk 📁

And the best part? installit uses no special privileges to copy files from one place to another. Just a girl doing her thing, no root energy required 💖

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Okay this is the main character section, let's get into it:

• -b — If destination names a pre-existing file, it will be removed before the copy is done. To make a backup copy, use the `-b` flag; the existing file will be renamed to have the specified extension. And okay here's the important lil detail: if source and destination are the same string, or if the two files are identical, then no copying is done at all, and only the `-o`, `-g`, `-m`, and `-s` flags (peep below 👀) are processed. In this case, the modification time on the destination will be updated using touch(1). no cap 🕐
• -n — Do not update the modification time on the destination. she said leave the timestamp alone bestie 🙈
• -o -g -m — Once the destination has been created, it is possible to set the owner, group, and mode that it should have. This is done by using the `-o`, `-g`, and `-m` flags, respectively. very demure, very mindful 🎀
• -O -G — The `-O` and `-G` flags set the owner and group only if installit is being run by root, as determined by whoami(1). so like, if you're not root, these do nothing, don't come for me 👑
• -s — To strip(1) an installed executable, use the `-s` flag. ✂️✨
• -t — okay she's in the synopsis, bestie, and I'm keeping her exactly where she is 🫶

💀 BUGS AND LIMITATIONS 💀

listen, nobody's perfect, and neither is installit, so let's be honest about it:

• Flags cannot be combined. one at a time, bestie, we're not doing -sgm here, that's not the vibe 😭
• The chown(8) command must exist in either the /etc or /usr/etc directory or the user's PATH. like, it has to be findable, fr fr.
• The whoami command must exist in the /usr/ucb directory or the user's PATH. yes specifically /usr/ucb, I don't make the rules, I just report them 🙈

⚠️ real talk: these are genuine limitations, not cute lil quirks. if those commands aren't findable, installit can't do its thing. plan accordingly 🌸

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.9, dated 1996/10/29. an absolute icon, honestly, she's been slaying since '96 👑

and that's the whole page bestie!! 💖 this was INSTALLIT(1) from the General Commands Manual, and it's signing off with all the love — go install something cute, you've got this 🦋✨🎀