GNU bug report logs - #50097
gzip: add "--keep" option to keep original files unchanged

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Package: gzip;

Reported by: Krzysztof Żelechowski <giecrilj <at> stegny.2a.pl>

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:45:01 UTC

Severity: wishlist

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From: "Adler, Mark" <madler <at> alumni.caltech.edu>
To: Krzysztof Żelechowski <giecrilj <at> stegny.2a.pl>, Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>, Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: Rodrigo Campos <rodrigo <at> sdfg.com.ar>, "50097 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <50097 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>, Antonio Diaz Diaz <antonio <at> gnu.org>
Subject: bug#50097: gzip: add "--keep" option to keep original files unchanged
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2021 11:21:45 +0000

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gzip theologians,

Just for information, up to now, pigz would merrily unlink the hard link of the input file, even if it has other hard links. While I’m not sure I understand why it shouldn’t do that (that is in fact what you asked it to do), in the spirit of behaving mostly like gzip, it will now* not unlink the input file if it has other hard links. It will let you know it didn’t do that, unless -k was provided. However it will proceed with the compression (or decompression) and create the file with the .gz added (or the .gz removed). If -f is specified, it will unlink the input file regardless of the number of hard links it has.

Mark

* “now” means on the develop branch of pigz on github. I have not yet released a new version with that commit.


On Aug 21, 2021, at 6:02 PM, Krzysztof Żelechowski <giecrilj <at> stegny.2a.pl<mailto:giecrilj <at> stegny.2a.pl>> wrote:

Dnia sobota, 21 sierpnia 2021 15:55:45 CEST Jim Meyering pisze:
I.e., we have to weigh "what could go wrong?" against "what would be
improved?" In this case, the weights are small on each side. That alone
argues against making a semantics-changing modification to such a tool.

The bad weight on the "for" side is 0, the counterexamples are unconvincing.

BR,
Chris


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