Jim Meyering wrote:
> It is a deliberate feature.
>
> Personally, I prefer the semantics of 'mv -f --backup=numbered'
> so use a shell alias.
just for fun I tried to get no backup created and tried '--backup=never',
but a backup is still created (version 8.5 on Cygwin, and 5.93 on SLES-10.3):
$ uname -a > a
$ ln -s a b
$ mv -v --backup=never b a
`b' -> `a' (backup: `a~')
$ ls -l a a~
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vb027591 ugrp 1 2010-09-02 11:50 a -> a
-rw-r--r--+ 1 vb027591 ugrp 69 2010-09-02 11:50 a~
I expected mv either to fail as if --backup=... is not given,
or that it moves the file without creating a backup.
Maybe I'm a bit confused that the combination of the words "backup"
and "never" contrasts to what it does: it _creates_ a backup
- though mentioned in manual:
$ man mv
...
simple, never
always make simple backups
Am I just misunderstanding the backup CONTROL "never"?
Have a nice day,
Berny
