Subject: Re: bug#11859: Reporting Bug (Enhancement) : Interactive Command for Copying Files (cp -i)

From: Eric Blake <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:47:59 -0600

tag 11859 notabug
thanks

On 07/04/2012 02:16 AM, Sitam Jana wrote:

> Actual result : Final status for the copy not displayed.  
> Expected result : As the command is an interactive command, it should display a final status message in the terminal to the user whether the file is actually overwritten or not. 
> Example of the final status message : 
> 1. If user type “y” for the warning message, final status message can be : “File is successfully overwritten”.
> 2. If user type “other than y” for the warning message, final status message can be : “File is not overwritten”.

Thanks for the suggestion.  However, the behavior of 'cp -i' without
other options is standardized, and POSIX does not permit this additional
informational message:

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/cp.html

If you go beyond the standard and use extension options, then 'cp -i
--verbose' (can be shortened to 'cp -iv') does close to what you want,
in that it gives positive output on a successful copy and no output for
an aborted copy:

$ cp -vi file file2
cp: overwrite `file2'? n
$ cp -vi file file2
cp: overwrite `file2'? y
`file' -> `file2'

At this point, I'm going to close this; any change to provide additional
output would require a new extension option, and since users wouldn't
get the new behavior unless they used the new option, you are unlikely
to have people using what you term as 'more friendly interactive
behavior'.  But feel free to provide any further comments or patches if
you think you can successfully argue your point.

-- 
Eric Blake   [email-masked]    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org