Re: cp doesn't overwrite fifos

[Mikael Magnusson]

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005, Jim Meyering wrote:

> Mikael Magnusson <address@hidden> wrote:
> > I have a file "a" and a fifo "b". Running "cp a b" prompts "cp: overwrite
> > b?", but answering yes just writes the contents of "a" into the fifo. If
>
> In this particular case, using the gnu-specific --remove-destination
> option will make it do what you want.

Ah, i missed that one. What is the advantage of truncating the existing 
file instead of removing it first? I guess the man page does state that it 
won't remove existing files when it says existing files are opened with 
O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, but I didn't realize the implications of this for 
fifos and hardlinks.

--
Mikael Magnusson