Re: cp doesn't overwrite fifos

[Jim Meyering]

>> In this particular case, using the gnu-specific --remove-destination
>> option will make it do what you want.
>
> Ah, i missed that one. What is the advantage of truncating the existing
> file instead of removing it first?

For some uses, it's the only approach that works, for example
if you have write access to a file in a write-protected directory.
If you care about atomicity, you might prefer to use rsync.