GNU bug report logs - #52122
mv: deletes src file on error

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Frank Busse <f.busse <at> imperial.ac.uk>

Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2021 11:10:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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

From: Frank Busse <f.busse <at> imperial.ac.uk>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: mv: deletes src file on error
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2021 11:07:09 +0000

Hi,


Given two files: an old version of "foo" on a mounted USB stick:

/mnt/dst/foo

and a new version of "foo" in /src/foo on the system's hard drive. When
I do:

sudo mv /src/foo /mnt/dst/foo

I get the following error:

mv: failed to preserve ownership for '/mnt/dst/foo': Operation not permitted

The error is fine but mv deletes /src/foo and keeps mnt/dst/foo,
meaning that the data of the new file is lost. Is this the intended
behaviour? I'm using Coreutils 9.0.


Kind regards,

Frank
This bug report was last modified 3 years and 177 days ago.

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