GNU bug report logs - #15173
[cp] --link overrides dereference settings

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From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
Cc: Gian Piero Carrubba <gpiero <at> rm-rf.it>, Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>, Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>, 15173 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#15173: [cp] --link overrides dereference settings
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 10:14:05 +0000

On 11/07/2013 07:07 AM, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
> Okay, so we're leaving the ground of the GNU extension --link here.

Yes.
I think the --link case should be considered separately (with and without -R).
I.E. IMHO your current patch is fine and good.

> cp's dereferencing vs. non-dereferencing behavior with -r seems to be a
> longer story, e.g. there have been several commits between Dec 2001 and
> Mar 2002.  I don't know why and I can't tell a reason, but I have the
> impression that the current behavior is the best choice for almost all
> situations.  On the other side, many scripts I've seen (including mine)
> are using the -a option (which is "-dR --preserve=all" with in turn
> -d as "--no-dereference --preserve=links") for copying whole directory
> tree ... that may be an indication that the default for -r alone is not
> that much used.
> Anyway, I belief that doing a change aside from this --link patch
> would be quite delicate.

The general -R dereferencing discussion can continue in 15806.

thanks,
Pádraig.

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