Subject: bug#31335: unexpected cp -f behavior

From: Ernesto Alfonso <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2018 11:14:44 -0700

cp -f fails when destination is a recursive symlink:

    $ ln -s self self
    $ cat self 
    self: Too many levels of symbolic links
    $ touch a
    $ cp a self 
    cp: failed to access 'self': Too many levels of symbolic links
    $ cp -f a self 
    cp: failed to access 'self': Too many levels of symbolic links

>From the man page:

       -f, --force
              if  an  existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again (this option is ignored when
              the -n option is also used)

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Ernesto