Re: install -D into directory

[Koblinger Egmont]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Andreas Schwab wrote:

> > The command ``install -D file /tmp/into/this/directory/'' says:
> > install: cannot create regular file `/tmp/into/this/directory/': Is a 
> > directory

> [...]
>   -D                  create all leading components of DEST except the last,
>                         then copy SOURCE to DEST;  useful in the 1st format


Okay, it behaves as the docs says, but I can't see any reason for this
behaviour. Then please take my mail as a feature request and not as a bug
report.

Currently the form ``install -D some files /here/'' (with trailing slash)
is unusable for anything, I'm sure that no-one uses it since it doesn't do
anything reasonable. (Try stracing it to see what it tries to do!) It
would be a nice and logical move if it created the directory and installed
files under it. Wouldn't hurt anyone, but would help.

It's completely illogical that it doesn't work now.

If I want to copy some files with keeping their name into an already
existing directory, I can do it with cp or install. If I want to copy one
file with possibly different name into an already existing dir, I can
still do it with either cp or install. If the target directory doesn't yet
exist, I can't use cp (or need a mkdir -p before it) but I can still use
install -- but only in one of the two cases, in the other case I need a
mkdir -p yet again.

IMHO it's a bug. Not a bug where the behavior differs from the doc, but a
bug where both the behavior and docs are illogical.



bye,

Egmont