Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:11522 comp.bugs.4bsd:1043
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari!otc!metro!pta!teti!nswitgould!ausonics!greyham
From: greyham@ausonics.OZ (Greyham Stoney)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Re: directory copying with cp; broken?
Message-ID: <40@ausonics.OZ>
Date: 28 Sep 88 01:56:37 GMT
References: <8540@smoke.ARPA>
Organization: Ausonics Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 20

in article <8540@smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) says:
> 
> In article <35@ausonics.OZ> greyham@ausonics.OZ (Greyham Stoney) writes:
>>... surely changing a directory into a regular file is a bit inconsistent?.
> 
> "cp" is not changing anything; it's making a copy of the contents of a
> file.  It wouldn't be safe for that to be turned into an actual
> directory since at least the "." entry in it would be incorrect.

Minor semantic point. Come on, you know what I was getting at. No, I wasn't
proposing it should create a directory, but rather that it made more sense to
reject the copy (or just copy the directory contents and do away with the -r
flag). Just depends on how you look at it I guess.
				Greyham

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