Re: cp: when are ACLs copied?

[Bernhard Voelker]

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 <address@hidden>
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