[Emacs-bug-tracker] bug#8381: closed (cp inconsistency)

[GNU bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:10:43 +0100
with message-id <address@hidden>
and subject line Re: bug#8381: cp inconsistency
has caused the GNU bug report #8381,
regarding cp inconsistency
to be marked as done.

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-- 
8381: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8381
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> --- Begin Message ---
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> Subject: 
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> Re: cp inconsistency
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> Date: 
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> Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:56:08 +0200
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> Hello,
>
> two issues:
> 1) manpage of cp contains obsolete email-address for bug-reporting
> 2) cp inconsistency when copying a directory to a) a non existing
> directory, or b) to an existing directory. Further elaborated below.
>
> cp -a SOME_DIR NOT_YET_EXISTING_DIR
>
> results in a new directory directly containing each entry of SOME_DIR
>
> while:
> CP -a SOME_DIR EXISTING_DIR
>
> results in EXISTING_DIR/SOME_DIR
>
> The first result seems to be a reasonable outcome in both cases.
> Appending "/" to the directory-names should lead to the same result.
> While appending "/." to the target-directory would change the meaning,
> and rather lead to the result of the observed second version.
>
> Kind regards,
> Thomas
>
> p.s. cp (GNU coreutils) 7.1
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>
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> --- End Message ---
> --- Begin Message ---
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> Subject: 
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> Re: bug#8381: cp inconsistency
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>
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> Date: 
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> Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:10:43 +0100
>
>
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> User-agent: 
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> Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US;	rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100227 Thunderbird/3.0.3
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>
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> On 30/03/11 12:56, Thomas Hofmann wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > two issues:
> > 1) manpage of cp contains obsolete email-address for bug-reporting
>
> That is fixed in current versions
>
> > 2) cp inconsistency when copying a directory to a) a non existing
> > directory, or b) to an existing directory. Further elaborated below.
> > 
> > cp -a SOME_DIR NOT_YET_EXISTING_DIR
> > 
> > results in a new directory directly containing each entry of SOME_DIR
> > 
> > while:
> > CP -a SOME_DIR EXISTING_DIR
> > 
> > results in EXISTING_DIR/SOME_DIR
> > 
> > The first result seems to be a reasonable outcome in both cases.
> > Appending "/" to the directory-names should lead to the same result.
> > While appending "/." to the target-directory would change the meaning,
> > and rather lead to the result of the observed second version.
>
> So you would like
>
> cp -a dir dest_dir  # copy dir/* to dest_dir/
> cp -a dir dest_dir/ # copy dir to dest_dir/
>
> That seems a bit subtle to me.
> Currently one can get the first behavior using `cp -aT`
> so I'll close this.
>
> Note also the related:
> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=7450
>
> cheers,
> Pádraig.
>
>
> --- End Message ---