Re: [PATCH] install-sh: Fix redundant use of the force option with the rm command

[Julien ÉLIE]

Hi Karl,

> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2018-03/index.html
>
> The one that seems too risky is making -c do something (preserve 
> permissions) instead of being a no-op. I think there could easily be 
> ancient calls of install-sh that use -c, and changing behavior now 
> doesn't seem good. We could invent a new option (-p I suppose) to do 
> it.

Using -p would be pretty fine.


> The one that omits chown-ing of pre-existing directories also worries
> me a bit (the one below). I can imagine a scenario where people
> installed as root and chowned to some specific user. OTOH, I agree it
> seems cleaner (not to touch existing directories).

This patch dates back to 2004 in our source code...  There were systems 
(unfortunately not mentioned in the commit) that produced an error when 
trying to chown a directory to the very user it was already owned by.
I don't know if that problem is still here on modern systems (at least, 
recent OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, AIX, Debian, Ubuntu behave OK.)


> Over the next days, I'll try installing these changes (one at a
> time) and making sure the test suite still runs ok.

Many thanks to you!

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Sum, ergo bibo ; bibo, ergo sum. »