On 10 Dec 2000, Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote:
> Marcel Moolenaar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > According to the manpage, if you remove -U it doesn't create new
> > directories or symlinks. At least that's how I interpret it.
>
> You interpret it wrong. -U just tells mtree to fix permissions. The
> canonical way to use the mtree files in /etc/mtree is 'mtree -deU -f
> <file> -p <path>', e.g. 'mtree -deU -f /etc/mtree/BSD.root.dist -p /'.
No.
(1) -U (and -u) tell mtree to update the hierarchy. It doesn't change
anything unless one of these flags is specified.
(2) -U is the special FreeBSD exit-no-evil (*) way which is mainly for
handling the problem under discussion: mtree -U ignores certain
errors (*) so that makeworld can use mtree without having to worry
about permissions.
The canonical way is `mtree -deu ...'.
The manpage gives too much emphasis to -U over -u.
(*) verify() doesn't return any errors other than the one canceled by
-U. Consequently, -U doesn't actually do anything useful. Using
it is equivalent to ignoring the exit status of mtree except for
usage errors. Serious errors such as missing files have apparently
never been reflected in mtree's exit status.
Bruce
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