Re: /bin/cp and operator precedence of -i over -f, coreutuils 5.2.1

[Paul Eggert]

Ken Johanson <address@hidden> writes:

> I didnt look in a any detail, but hope that the other function's
> default behavior will become uniform.

The problem (unfortunately) is that POSIX specifies a nonuniform
behavior.  I suspect this is because that's the way other historical
implementations behave, but I don't know the history.

> the standard doesnt appear to address simul -f and -i args.

It gives a detailed explanation of how each arg affects 'cp', and this
explanation makes sense if both args are specified.  Clearly -f does
not override -i, and -i does not override -f; they're independent
options with 'cp'.

I'm sympathetic to your needs, and that's why I proposed the -Y (or
-y) option to undo the effects of -i.  Another possibility would be
for 'cp' to depart from POSIX here (and behave like FreeBSD 'cp' does,
by the way) unless POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.