Re: Interactivity (-i) and non-interactivity

[Eric Blake]

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According to Jan Engelhardt on 3/11/2007 10:28 AM:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> by default, coreutils cp will overwrite a file. Hence I put in
> 
>       alias cp='/bin/cp -i'

This list tends to frown on that practice.  Individually, you can set
aliases to whatever you like.  But system-wide, you are just setting your
users up to expect it, perhaps unknowingly, and it tends to come back and
haunt them when they swap to a different setup.  But I don't manage your
system, so I can't force you to change your opinion.

> 
> "cp" on the other hand is missing this. The following patch adds it in.

Sorry, but POSIX requires that 'cp -i' and 'cp -f' are orthogonal, and
that neither overrides the other.  This patch is wrong because it goes
against POSIX.
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/cp.html

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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