Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:30:14 -0400 From: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Cc: Doug Barton <dougb@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: [PATCH] adding two new options to 'cp' Message-ID: <200607271730.14998.jhb@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <44C8FB65.9020102@FreeBSD.org> References: <200607271150.k6RBoM9p031745@lurza.secnetix.de> <44C8FB65.9020102@FreeBSD.org>
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On Thursday 27 July 2006 13:44, Doug Barton wrote: > Oliver Fromme wrote: > > Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com> wrote: > > > I'm tired of trying to use rsync or gcp (which doesn't like symlinks > > > often) to copy trees of files/directories using hard links, so I added > > > the gcp-ish options -a and -l. > > > > > > -a is 'archive' mode, which is just a quick form of -PpR. > > > > -P is the default anyway, so -a would only replace -Rp. > > I don't think saving one letter justifies introducing a new > > option. You can use an alias or shell function. > > > > > -l is 'link' mode, where regular files get hard linked instead of copied. > > > > > > So, you can mimic an entire tree with something like: > > > > > > cp -al /from/ /to/ > > > > > > and it's fast too! > > > > You can do the same with existing tools in a portable > > (and thus preferable) way: > > > > cd /from; find -d . | cpio -dumpl /to > > While I don't want to stifle anyone's creativity, I agree with Oliver (and > other posters) on this one. The Unix way of doing things is small programs > that do their jobs well, tied together to accomplish bigger things. OTOH, 'cp -al' is a lot less to type. :) It also is not NIH as it is simulating the interface of another system. Maybe I'm just stodgy b/c I never use cpio(8) (it seems to be one of the more cryptic programs). -- John Baldwin
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