Christoph Plattner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> why did you change the policy of the `-i' and `-f' usage after
> the version 4.0 of the fileutils package. (For example in
> 4.0.36, or 4.1).
Because that's not consistent with the POSIX specification
that describes how cp should work. It is unfortunate that
-i and -f don't mean the same thing with cp as with mv.
For that reason, with newer versions of the fileutils cp and
mv both accept the --reply[=HOW] option:
`--reply[=HOW]'
Using `--reply=yes' makes `cp' act as if `yes' were given as a
response to every prompt about a destination file. That
effectively cancels any preceding `--interactive' or `-i' option.
Specify `--reply=no' to make `cp' act as if `no' were given as a
response to every prompt about a destination file. Specify
`--reply=query' to make `cp' prompt the user about each existing
destination file.
> Many UNIX users (AFAIK)and I want to use `-f' to
> override `-i'. For example I have an alias of:
>
> cp='cp -i'
You might want to use 'cp --backup=numbered' instead.
Then you won't be prompted at all, and existing files
will merely end up being renamed to emacs-style backups
like foo.c.~1~
> to be prompted before overwriting. To force overwriting,
> I used the `-f' option on the command line.
> With the newer fileutils package this is not possible any
> more.
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