From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Oct 17 18:39:01 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8B4FBC164D4 for ; Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:39:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@sohara.org) Received: from smtp3.irishbroadband.ie (smtp3.irishbroadband.ie [62.231.32.5]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4CBCC117 for ; Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:39:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@sohara.org) Received: from [89.127.62.20] (helo=smtp.lan.sohara.org) by smtp3.irishbroadband.ie with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1bwCo9-0008Vm-Gu for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:38:45 +0100 Received: from [192.168.63.1] (helo=steve.lan.sohara.org) by smtp.lan.sohara.org with smtp (Exim 4.87 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1bwCoa-0006w0-9D for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:39:12 +0000 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:38:41 +0100 From: Steve O'Hara-Smith To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A request for cp flag Message-Id: <20161017193841.36b3df93ebd7ce0a32f4ef9e@sohara.org> In-Reply-To: <122eea3e-08a6-69a0-d67f-93873df095a6@FreeBSD.org> References: <122eea3e-08a6-69a0-d67f-93873df095a6@FreeBSD.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.5.0 (GTK+ 2.24.29; amd64-portbld-freebsd10.1) X-Clacks-Overhead: "GNU Terry Pratchett" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:39:01 -0000 On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:59:10 +0100 Matthew Seaman wrote: > You're not going to get anyone to change the behaviour of a core command > like cp(1) I'm afraid. For all that you dislike the behaviour when > copying a directory path that ends in '/' there will be many, many more > people that have written scripts that depend on that exact behaviour and > will be exceedingly peeved if those scripts stop working. Adding a -r flag wouldn't break anything at least until POSIX adds one that does something else and then there'd be a decision to make, for that reason I doubt anyone would entertain a new single letter option to cp. -- Steve O'Hara-Smith