From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 31 01:49:16 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 333BF16A4CE for ; Thu, 31 Mar 2005 01:49:16 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp3.adl2.internode.on.net (smtp3.adl2.internode.on.net [203.16.214.203]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6995443D2D for ; Thu, 31 Mar 2005 01:49:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from smckay@internode.on.net) Received: from dungeon.home (ppp116-118.lns1.bne3.internode.on.net [59.167.116.118])j2V1nC78093541; Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:19:13 +0930 (CST) Received: from dungeon.home (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dungeon.home (8.13.1/8.11.6) with ESMTP id j2V1mvL3006507; Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:48:57 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from mckay) Message-Id: <200503310148.j2V1mvL3006507@dungeon.home> To: Garrett Wollman References: <20050327223238.GA749@polands.org> <010401c53385$584a04c0$6800000a@venti> <20050329041527.GA9586@VARK.MIT.EDU> <20050329062550.GA69824@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> <200503301139.j2UBdMp5016442@dungeon.home> <200503301449.j2UEn1v5061914@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <200503301449.j2UEn1v5061914@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> from Garrett Wollman at "Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:49:01 -0500" Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:48:57 +1000 From: Stephen McKay cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org cc: Stephen McKay Subject: Re: Heads up: gtar gone from base system X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 01:49:16 -0000 On Wednesday, 30th March 2005, Garrett Wollman wrote: >< said: > >> Tar is indeed a most excellent program for copying directory trees, since >> even in this modern century cp fails to correctly handle hard links. Sigh. > >I believe the record will show that `cp' handles hard links correctly >according to the specification; that's simply not the behavior you >want. (In POSIX one would use `pax -rw' for that.) Have you had a blood transfusion from a lawyer recently? How else could you be so literal? :-) It's obvious that "cp" has split hard links for all its life because the original programmer was lazy. That this laziness has been codified in POSIX is not something to be cheered, although at this late stage it may be too hard to fix. I want the normal utility for copying files and directories to copy them exactly, not approximately. I've been using the "tar|tar" trick since the mid 80's (and it works perfectly), but I groan inwardly every time. Using pax instead of tar because cp doesn't work properly is still a hack, though since it is less typing it may be worth investigating. Stephen.