Sorry, in my prior post the subject link should have been "Help with the ln command using the --backup=existing option"
Sam On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Surfin Ten <[email protected]> wrote: > According to Section 2.2 "Backup options" of the GNU coreutils > documenation, using --backup=existing will make numbered backups of > files that already have them, simple backups of the others. > > However, issuing the following command results in this (I realize in > the example it doesn't make sense that a person would want to do this, > but this is the easiest way to explain what I am trying to do as part > of a larger project): > > First command: > ln --backup=existing -s myfile.txt link_to_myfile.txt // > creates symbolic link called "link_to_myfile.txt" > > Second command (identical to the first): > ln --backup=existing -s myfile.txt link_to_myfle.txt // > creates symbolic link called "link_to_myfile.txt~ (note the tilde at > the end since a link with the same name already exists) > > Third command (identical to the first and second): > ln --backup=existing -s myfile.txt link_to_myfile.txt // > overwrites the link created by the second command, does *not* create a > numbered backup > > My question is, shouldn't use of the --backup=existing option result > in the third command creating a link called "link_to_myfile.txt~1" > since the documentation says --backup=existing creates numbered > backups? > > Thanks, > > Sam >
