Re: Fileutils > 4.0 version

[Christoph Plattner]

Thanks for that good answer.

Bye
Christoph P.


Jim Meyering wrote:
> 
> Christoph Plattner <address@hidden> wrote:
> > why did you change the policy of the `-i' and `-f' usage after
> > the version 4.0 of the fileutils package. (For example in
> > 4.0.36, or 4.1).
> 
> Because that's not consistent with the POSIX specification
> that describes how cp should work.  It is unfortunate that
> -i and -f don't mean the same thing with cp as with mv.
> For that reason, with newer versions of the fileutils cp and
> mv both accept the --reply[=HOW] option:
> 
>   `--reply[=HOW]'
>       Using `--reply=yes' makes `cp' act as if `yes' were given as a
>       response to every prompt about a destination file.  That
>       effectively cancels any preceding `--interactive' or `-i' option.
>       Specify `--reply=no' to make `cp' act as if `no' were given as a
>       response to every prompt about a destination file.  Specify
>       `--reply=query' to make `cp' prompt the user about each existing
>       destination file.
> 
> > Many UNIX users (AFAIK)and I want to use `-f' to
> > override `-i'. For example I have an alias of:
> >
> > cp='cp -i'
> 
> You might want to use 'cp --backup=numbered' instead.
> Then you won't be prompted at all, and existing files
> will merely end up being renamed to emacs-style backups
> like foo.c.~1~
> 
> > to be prompted before overwriting. To force overwriting,
> > I used the `-f' option on the command line.
> > With the newer fileutils package this is not possible any
> > more.

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