Bug#354875: /bin/cp directory full vs. disk full messages

[Dan Jacobson]

Package: coreutils
Version: 5.93-5
Severity: normal
File: /bin/cp

Trying to copy a less than 1MB file to a half full 16MB flash card, I get:

# cp xutils_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_i386.deb /mnt/usb/pqi
cp: cannot create regular file
`/mnt/usb/pqi/xutils_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_i386.deb': No space left on device
# df /mnt/usb/pqi
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1                15968      9072      6896  57% /mnt/usb/pqi
# sync
# cp xutils_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_i386.deb /mnt/usb/pqi
cp: cannot create regular file
`/mnt/usb/pqi/xutils_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_i386.deb': No space left on device 
# mkdir /mnt/usb/pqi/dir
# cp xutils_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_i386.deb /mnt/usb/pqi/dir
#

Well if the problem is that the flash card's root FAT file table was
full, then there should be a better message!

Separate "directory full" from "disk full" when giving messages to the
user, else he might never guess the solution.

Maybe historically for UNIX this would never happen, so the messages
were never improved.