From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] dumb question From: forsyth@vitanuova.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="upas-fzhqwsurtwezplnnevrmnhelqy" Message-Id: <20020627143201.8BCCE19999@mail.cse.psu.edu> Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:33:23 +0100 Topicbox-Message-UUID: bc15e3ae-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --upas-fzhqwsurtwezplnnevrmnhelqy Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit accident is one possible justification, and there's also a matter of meaning. if i say `copy this file to that file' i expect to see a strict copy of the file as a result. it's fairly clear cut. on most systems that provide directory `copying', if i say cp dir1 target (or cp -r) and dir1 exists in the target, i usually obtain a merge (it's perhaps one of the reasons that options bristle as finer control over the operation is provided). arguably, cp should instead remove files in the existing destination directory in order to produce a strict copy. --upas-fzhqwsurtwezplnnevrmnhelqy Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu> Received: from punt-2.mail.demon.net by mailstore for forsyth@vitanuova.com id 1025184121:20:00805:94; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:22:01 GMT Received: from psuvax1.cse.psu.edu ([130.203.4.6]) by punt-2.mail.demon.net id aa2001844; 27 Jun 2002 13:21 GMT Received: from psuvax1.cse.psu.edu (psuvax1.cse.psu.edu [130.203.16.6]) by mail.cse.psu.edu (CSE Mail Server) with ESMTP id 6312F19A0D; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:21:13 -0400 (EDT) Delivered-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Received: from plan9.cs.bell-labs.com (closedmind.org [204.178.31.2]) by mail.cse.psu.edu (CSE Mail Server) with SMTP id 38E7F199BB for <9fans@cse.psu.edu>; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:20:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <3ba2a45af5c572e7280e465acb3a805a@plan9.bell-labs.com> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] dumb question MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: 9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu Errors-To: 9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu X-BeenThere: 9fans@cse.psu.edu X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu List-Id: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans.cse.psu.edu> List-Archive: Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 09:20:55 -0400 > Perhaps someone could explain why cp doesn't work recursively (without > an option) when given a directory as a first argument. Because running cp that way would probably happen more often by mistake than by intention, and it could damage a lot of files very fast before the user noticed. -rob --upas-fzhqwsurtwezplnnevrmnhelqy--