In rereading my proposed patch <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2007-06/msg00145.html> I discovered that I sent in the wrong ChangeLog entry. I inadvertently omitted the part of the ChangeLog that described Jim Meyering's contribution. My apologies! Here's the corrected ChangeLog entry for that patch:
2007-06-14 Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * NEWS: "cp" no longer considers a destination symlink to be the same as the referenced file when copying links or making backups. * src/copy.c (copy_reg): When following a symlink, used the followed name in later chown etc. requests, so that the created file is affected, rather than the symlink. Use O_NOFOLLOW on source when not dereferencing symlinks; this avoids a race. Preserve errno correctly when doing multiple open attempts on the destination. (copy_internal): Follow destination symlinks only when copying a regular file and only when we don't intend to remove or rename the destination first, regardless of whether following source symlinks; this is because since POSIX and tradition (e.g., FreeBSD) says we should ordinarily follow destination symlinks if the system calls would ordinarily do so. * src/copy.h (struct cp_options): Add comment that 'dereference' is only for source files. * src/cp.c (usage): Note that --derereference etc. are only for source files. (make_dir_parents_private): Follow symlinks, regardless of whether --dereference is specified, because these are destination symlinks. * tests/cp/same-file: Adjust tests to match revised behavior. Filter out perror output since it might vary from host to host. Use sed alone instead of also using echo. * doc/coreutils.texi (cp invocation): Document the behavior better when the destination is a symlink. Clarify source versus destination symlinks. Describe the new behavior for destination symlinks. 2007-06-14 Jim Meyering <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * src/copy.c: Include "canonicalize.h". (copy_reg): Use canonicalize_filename_mode to follow the symlink, so that we can always open with O_EXCL and avoid a race. _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils