Re: Bug#389170: coreutils: mv -v fails on hardlinked files

[Marc Lehmann]

On Sun, Sep 24, 2006 at 09:33:27PM +0200, Jim Meyering <address@hidden> wrote:
> >    cerebro /tmp/tst# mv -v x y
> >    cerebro /tmp/tst#
> >
> > The second mv should output `x' -> `y', but doesn't output anything (the
> > operation is correctly executed, though).
> 
> Thanks for the report.
> I've fixed that.  Though it doesn't print what you suggest.

Wow, cool!

Well, I didn't suggest anything, to be exact, but I would prefer if mv gave
the same message as when moving other files. The fact that the destination is
a hardlink of the source file should not make any difference, and the fact
that mv removes the first file, while providing more information, is likely
confusing to users. As a heavy shell user, I often depend on the output of
mv, and be able to select both filenames has been very useful.

And the result would be correct wether x is removed, or y was replaced (I
see this similar to rm not doing the same thing as unlink to achieve removal
of a name, but resorting to a variety of syscalls).

It doesn't make much sense to me that hardlinks are such a special case
when I basically want to replace one named file by another.

However, it certainly fixes the bug that mv doesn't display anything,
which is rather scary, so I am content even with that message :)

Thanks a lot for fixing this :)

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