Re: -a != -dpR

[Jim Meyering]

Jeroen Vriesman <address@hidden> wrote:
> When cp -i -arv /xxxx /yyyy
> copy hangs on a FIFO
> if I use cp -i -dpRv /xxxx /yyyy
> it works, so in this case -a is not -dpR (as stated in the man page) but -a
> is -dpr.
...
> cp (GNU fileutils) 4.0

Thanks for the report.

The problem is that you're using -a and -r, but -r conflicts with
(and hence overrides) the -R implicit in -a (-a == -dpR).
So your command that hangs is equivalent to `cp -i -dprv ...',
and since `-r' says to read special files, you've told cp to read
the FIFO and it hangs, as expected.

If you had put the -r *before* the -a, then the -r would have been
ignored -- because it would have been overridden by -a's -R.
Best is just not to use -r with -a.
I may change cp to give a warning when those two options are used.

> This only happens when the -v option is also given.

It is supposed to be independent of -v.
If you can show that -v changes how it works, then please
give details.

You might want to get a newer release:
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/fetish/fileutils-4.1.4.tar.gz