INSTALL(1)

💖 INSTALL(1) — the install girlie's guide 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual entry for install 🎀 yes it's really called that, and no it is not about downloading anything, it's a whole vibe of its own. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

install — copy SOURCE to DEST, or copy multiple SOURCE(s) into the existing DIRECTORY, while also setting permission modes and owner/group. it's cp but it's doing the most, and honestly? we respect it. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

install [OPTION]... [FILE]...

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so the whole thing, in one breath: it copies SOURCE to DEST, or it copies multiple SOURCE(s) into the existing DIRECTORY, and while it's at it, it sets the permission modes and the owner/group too. one trip, multiple jobs, main character energy fr fr 👑

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

ngl there are a LOT of these, and we are doing every single one, no skips, periodt.

• --backup[=<CONTROL>] — makes a backup of every existing destination file 💾
• -b — same energy as --backup, but it does not take an argument
• -c — literally ignored. that's it. it's just there. iconic of it tbh 💀
• -C, --compare — compares each pair of source and destination files, and in some cases it just… doesn't touch the destination at all 🌸
• -d, --directory — treats all arguments as directory names, and creates all components of the specified directories 🧚
• -D — creates all the leading components of DEST except the last one, then copies SOURCE to DEST ✨
• -g, --group <GROUP> — sets group ownership, instead of whatever the process's current group is
• -m, --mode <MODE> — sets the permission mode (same idea as in chmod), instead of rwxr-xr-x
• -o, --owner <OWNER> — sets ownership (super-user only, bestie, don't try it otherwise 🙈)
• -p, --preserve-timestamps — applies the access/modification times of the SOURCE files onto the corresponding destination files ⏰
• -s, --strip — strips symbol tables
• --strip-program <PROGRAM> — the program used to strip binaries
• -S, --suffix <SUFFIX> — overrides the usual backup suffix 🎀
• -t, --target-directory <DIRECTORY> — moves all SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY
• -T, --no-target-directory — treats DEST as a normal file
• -v, --verbose — explains what is being done 🗣️
• -P, --preserve-context — preserves security context
• -Z — sets the SELinux security context of the destination file, and of each created directory, to the default type
• --context [<CONTEXT>] — sets the security context of files and directories
• -U, --unprivileged — does not require elevated privileges to change the owner, the group, or the file flags of the destination
• -h, --help — prints help 🫶
• -V, --version — prints version
• [files]

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✨ VERSION ✨

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

copy files to the destination:

install path/to/source_file1 path/to/source_file2 ...
path/to/destination

copy files to the destination, setting their ownership:

install [-o|--owner] user path/to/source_file1 path/to/source_file2 ...
path/to/destination

copy files to the destination, setting their group ownership:

install [-g|--group] user path/to/source_file1 path/to/source_file2 ...
path/to/destination

copy files to the destination, setting their mode:

install [-m|--mode] +x path/to/source_file1 path/to/source_file2 ...
path/to/destination

copy files and apply access/modification times of source to the destination:

install [-p|--preserve-timestamps] path/to/source_file1
path/to/source_file2 ... path/to/destination

copy files and create the directories at the destination if they don't exist:

install -D path/to/source_file1 path/to/source_file2 ...
path/to/destination

the examples are provided by the tldr-pages project https://tldr.sh under the CC BY 4.0 License 📜 and please note that, since uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail. not us being honest and transparent, we love to see it 💜

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aaaand that's the whole page bestie 🌈 no cap, you now know install better than most people on this planet.

this was the General Commands Manual entry for install, from uutils coreutils 0.12.0, dated 2026-09-25. go forth and copy things responsibly 💅✨🦋