Re: Autoconf 2.52g is released

[Russ Allbery]

Akim Demaille <address@hidden> writes:

> Do you have references for this?  This is typical information that
> must be double checked and included in autoconf.texi once certified.

That's the way that cp -p pretty much always works, if the -p flag is
supported.  See, for example, the GNU fileutils documentation:

`-p'
`--preserve'
     Preserve the original files' owner, group, permissions, and
     timestamps.  In the absence of this option, each destination file
     is created with the permissions of the corresponding source file,
     minus the bits set in the umask. *Note File permissions::.

Of course, when copying files on a UFS file system as a non-root user,
most current Unixes won't allow file giveaway and therefore at most the
group will be affected.  However, one doesn't have to be root to be able
to chown files under some circumstances; for example, when copying files
in AFS, one can chown them to arbitrary users if one is a member of the
system:administrators PTS group.

-- 
Russ Allbery (address@hidden)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>