Jeff,
On Tue, 9 Nov 1999, Jeff Dike wrote:
> > I always wonder why people use tar beasts if they have the wonderful
> > GNU cp?
^^^
>
> Because cp will completely foul up device files. Try copying /dev/mem from
> one place to another. You won't like the results :-)
sorry, but I can't stand it if people don't actually try things instead of
repeating false statements:
---8<--- snip ---
root@wombat:/tmp> ls -l /dev/mem
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 1 May 5 1998 /dev/mem
root@wombat:/tmp> cp -a /dev/mem .
root@wombat:/tmp> ls -l mem
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 1 May 5 1998 mem
---8<--- snap ---
What you say might apply to several commercial Unix vendors' cp, but not
to any GNU cp I've seen (of course very old ones may differ...).
> > Lean back and enjoy the show... I think this alternative is far less
> > error prone, because people have less to type and actually understand
> > what they do.
>
> And in all of the normal output, there might be an error that you will
> completely miss. I like things that shut up unless they have
> something to say that I really need to know about.
Then leave out the -v switch. Some like silence, some not. When copying
whole filesystems one might want to know how long it'll take to finish.
That's where stderr redirection is due.
Nils
--
Nils Philippsen / Vogelsangstrasse 115 / D-70197 Stuttgart / +49.711.6599405
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The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
regarded as a criminal offence. -- Edsger W. Dijkstra
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