Hi (again),
cp -al won't overwrite existing files with hardlinks to the source
version. Quoth the online info(1) page for cp in coreutils (the bit
about --force):
Contrast this behavior with that enabled by --link and --symbolic-
link, whereby the destination file is never opened but rather is
unlinked unconditionally.
But this doesn't seem to be the case unless I use --force:
laptop:~/cptest zak$ rm -rf *
laptop:~/cptest zak$ mkdir src dest
laptop:~/cptest zak$ touch src/a dest/a
laptop:~/cptest zak$ ls -i src/a dest/a
524454 dest/a 524453 src/a
laptop:~/cptest zak$ ~/coreutils/coreutils-6.6/src/cp -al src/a dest/a
/Users/zak/coreutils/coreutils-6.6/src/cp: cannot create link `dest/
a': File exists
laptop:~/cptest zak$ ls -i src/a dest/a
524454 dest/a 524453 src/a
laptop:~/cptest zak$ ~/coreutils/coreutils-6.6/src/cp -al --force
src/a dest/a
laptop:~/cptest zak$ ls -i src/a dest/a
524453 dest/a 524453 src/a
I'd like cp to behave like the info page says. Is this a bug in cp
or the docs?
Cheers,
Zak
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