From owner-freebsd-current  Sat Jun 16  3:22:30 2001
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Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 12:22:11 +0200
From: "Steve O'Hara-Smith" <steveo@eircom.net>
To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc: david@catwhisker.org, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: symlink(2) [Was: Re: tcsh.cat]
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On Sat, 16 Jun 2001 17:27:00 +1000 (EST)
Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> wrote:


BE> > 	This is correct behaviour IMHO - why on earth should it fail. If I
BE> > copy a directory containing symlinks I don't want them do vanish just because
BE> > the target is unavailable.
BE> 
BE> Because cp copies file contents, not file nodes (unless the -R flag is
BE> specified).  This is clarified in current POSIX drafts.  gnu cp gets
BE> this right.

	*WHAT*, let me get this straight POSIX drafts now suggest that cp *should*
turn a symlink into a file ? I truly dread to think how much that would break.

	Please tell me I have the wrong end of the stick here, failing that someone
please tell me that FreeBSD will not follow this madness.

	Hang on, the target of a symlink *is* the content of the symlink not the
content of the file that may or may not be at the target. At least it always used
to be that way.

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