Re: feature request: no overwrite on cp, mv (updated)

[Bob Proulx]

Mark Rose wrote:
> I'd like a new, relatively easy to implement feature in cp and
> mv. Currently, the --interactive option prompts before overwriting
> an existing file. There is also --update, that will only overwrite
> if the source file is newer.  However, there is not an option to
> noninteractive _not_ overwrite older existing files.

I think your best option is to use 'rsync --ignore-existing'.  That
already does what you want.

> I have a directory into which new files are continually being saved,
> and from which files older than a year are being moved. When old
> files have been moved out, users may save new files with the same
> name as archived files.

You did not say if this is an archive, backup, rm alias, or what but
as I read that if a file is updated more often than once a year no
copy is saved?  That seems strange to me.

> Currently, I use find to find the files, then call a shell script to
> check if the file already exists, and if not, then move the file.

Seems like a reasonable solution to me.

> This option would also be very handy when merging directory contents without 
> overwriting existing files.

See 'rsync' for this and many other features.

> This concept is actually currently implemented, with a combination of -i 
> and --reply=no, but the --reply option is slated to be removed soon.

Because the --reply option only specified how to answer the prompt
when a prompt was given, and a prompt was never given if run
non-interactively, this implies to me that you have an interactive
command in your case.  But if you ran the command non-interactively
you would find that it did not actually do what you wanted.

Bob