bug#10020: cp -i -l asks for permission to overwrite then fails to do so

[Assaf Gordon]

tags 10020 wontfix
severity 10020 wishlish
close 10020
stop

(triaging old bugs)

Hello,

On 19/11/11 09:11 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Maximiliano Curia wrote:
[...]
> > A small test could be:
> >
> > $ rm -rf test; ls test; mkdir test; touch test/a test/b; cp -il test/a test/b
> > ls: cannot access test: No such file or directory
> > cp: overwrite `test/b'? y
> > cp: cannot create link `test/b': File exists

[...]

> Thanks for the report.
> I agree that the current behavior is undesirable.
>
> How could we change it? (--link (-l) is not specified by POSIX, so we may)
> Here are some ways:
[...]

> However, this behavior has been with us for nearly two decades.
> Is it really worth changing now?
>
> Regardless, you can certainly use --force or --remove-destination to avoid
> the failure.  Or use --backup to move any existing destination file aside.
>
> Unless someone steps forward to work on this,
> I suggest we simply close the issue as "not a big deal",
> given that there are plenty of ways to work around the problem.

Given the above, and with no further follow-ups in 6 years,
I'm closing this bug as "wontfix".
Discussion can continue by replying to this thread.

regards,
 - assaf