On 11/23/2012 10:22 AM, Pádraig Brady wrote: > It means that since xattrs are often used to store ACLs, SELinux contexts > and capabilities etc., by specifying --preserve=xattr you may be implicitly > copying those, even if you didn't specify --preserve=mode or > --preserve=context
Thanks. What about the following clarification? Have a nice day, Berny >From d00ce5c1319a4b91765ab89263bf14b505361eec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bernhard Voelker <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:04:44 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] doc: cp: clarify behavior of the --preserve=xattr option * doc/coreutils.texi (cp invocation): Enhance documentation of the --preserve=xattr option regarding the preservation of ACLs, SELinux contexts and capabilities: the user may notice this only when not specifying --preserve=mode and --preserve=context, too, i.e., otherwise, these attributes are preserved anyway. --- doc/coreutils.texi | 3 ++- 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index cc9df7d..26996c4 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -7838,7 +7838,8 @@ Preserve SELinux security context of the file, or fail with full diagnostics. Preserve extended attributes of the file, or fail with full diagnostics. If @command{cp} is built without xattr support, ignore this option. If SELinux context, ACLs or Capabilities are implemented using xattrs, -they are preserved by this option as well. +they are preserved implicitly by this option as well, i.e., even without +specifying @option{--preserve=mode} or @option{--preserve=context}. @item all Preserve all file attributes. Equivalent to specifying all of the above, but with the difference -- 1.7.7
