GNU bug report logs - #17138
cp: how to respect target symlinks?

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: how to respect target symlinks w/cp?  problem?
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 19:02:27 -0700

I was wanting to copy a source tree
to a target where the target had some symlink'd dirs..


/arch64/> \cp -r usr/. ../usr/.
cp: cannot overwrite non-directory `../usr/././share' with directory `usr/./share'

I have a setup on a bi-arch machine
where /usr/share under each 'arch' points to a common
/common/share/... I see options in the manpage for
having cp respect the SOURCE symlinks, but
see no option to have it respect symlinks in the target.

Note: If I wanted the target's symlinks to be overwritten
or ignored, I would use "cp -fa" that would overwrite
the symlinks (I think) and create them as directories,
but barring "a", why doesn't it just follow the path?

The purpose of symlinks was to allow seamless redirection,
but now more utils seem to be ignoring that usage just
like on a security level group access is being increasingly
ignored.

tar just overwrites the symlink with the dir w/o warning...

Message #8 received at 17138 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
To: 17138 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#17138: how to respect target symlinks w/cp?  problem?
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 21:07:18 -0700

Is some server bottled up somewhere? this bug was the last one
I saw come through...

Linda Walsh wrote:
> I was wanting to copy a source tree
> to a target where the target had some symlink'd dirs..
> 
> 
> /arch64/> \cp -r usr/. ../usr/.
> cp: cannot overwrite non-directory `../usr/././share' with directory 
> `usr/./share'
> 
> I have a setup on a bi-arch machine
> where /usr/share under each 'arch' points to a common
> /common/share/... I see options in the manpage for
> having cp respect the SOURCE symlinks, but
> see no option to have it respect symlinks in the target.
> 
> Note: If I wanted the target's symlinks to be overwritten
> or ignored, I would use "cp -fa" that would overwrite
> the symlinks (I think) and create them as directories,
> but barring "a", why doesn't it just follow the path?
> 
> The purpose of symlinks was to allow seamless redirection,
> but now more utils seem to be ignoring that usage just
> like on a security level group access is being increasingly
> ignored.
> 
> tar just overwrites the symlink with the dir w/o warning...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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