Re: mv: preserving permissions for `./file': Invalid argument

[Jim Meyering]

Richard Leeden wrote:
> Since 7.1 I'm seeing an error message with mv when attempting to move files
> from filesystems mounted on swap (such as /tmp and /var/run). I've only been
> able to test on sparc Solaris and see the issue on Solaris 8 and 9 but not
> on 10.
>
> To reproduce:
>
> root>touch /tmp/a
> root>mv /tmp/a .
> mv: preserving permissions for `./a': Invalid argument
>
> The mv of the file does work though.
>
> I don't see the problem when moving files within standard filesystems, or
> when moving a file to /tmp or within /tmp - only when moving from /tmp to a
> standard filesystem.

Thanks for the report.
However we'll need more information.
For example, what is the type of your destination file system?
If it's a local file system, "df -hT ." will tell you.
If it's NFS, it'd be good if you could tell us the OS of the server
as well as the type of disk it exports.

What are the permissions of the source and destination files
and the destination directory?  I.e., run this after the mv:

    ls -ld /tmp/a a .

Also, please rerun your example under "truss", to see what system
calls are used i.e.,

  rm -f a
  truss -o log mv /tmp/a .

and post the log.

Caveat: Solaris 8 and 9 are on the way out, in my mind.
I haven't had access to those types of systems for at least
three years now, and that's a pretty serious impediment to
maintaining portability to them.