Newsgroups: comp.compression Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!bat!eirik From: eirik@wonton.TN.Cornell.EDU (Eirik Fuller) Subject: Re: Silliness in compress(1) In-Reply-To: ch@dce.ie's message of 12 Apr 91 10:11:21 GMT Message-ID: Sender: news@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: wonton.tn.cornell.edu Organization: Cornell Theory Center References: <1991Apr10.193729.28574@agate.berkeley.edu> <1991Apr12.101121.9897@dce.ie> Date: 18 Apr 91 20:42:09 A related question: why does compress refuse to compress links? I think a warning message about a link would be entirely appropriate, since it would inform a user about the likelihood of the failure of compress to free up the space taken up by the original file. What if I don't want to free up that space? What if I want the file in both forms (compressed and uncompressed) without copying the uncompressed version? Utter refusal to leave a compressed copy of the file, particularly after it went to the trouble of compressing it first, seems to fit this Subject line pretty well. I understand that I could just "compress < file > file.Z ; rm file", but that doesn't preserve permissions and modtime.