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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: System V commands...
Message-ID: <6256@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 8-Aug-87 09:20:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.6256
Posted: Sat Aug  8 09:20:49 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Aug-87 11:11:29 EDT
References: <1685@cadovax.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Distribution: world
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 9

In article <1685@cadovax.UUCP> mitchell@cadovax.UUCP (Mitchell Lerner) writes:
>Why does System V version 2,3 not have a recursive copy routine (cp -r)?

Perhaps because it has more flexible facilities via find -cpio|cpio -p.
The trouble with "cp -r" and similar "nice" features is that they ASSUME
A PARTICULAR USAGE MODEL that is not always appropriate.  Better to
provide tailorable facilities and let the users decide how to use them
for their parcticular purposes.  (If I felt much need for it, which I
don't, I would defined a shell function "cpr" to do a recursive copy.)