Use of "cp -a" in configure not very portable

[Jens Schleusener]

Hello,

I just tried to configure and compile fileutils-4.0.39 under AIX 4.1.4
and got a small error (fileutils-4.0.36 hasn't that problem):

 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/contrib --disable-nls \
            --program-prefix=gnu

 cp: illegal option -- a
 Usage: cp [-fhip] [-r|-R] [--] src target
    or: cp [-fhip] [-r|-R] [--] src1 ... srcN directory
 checking build system type... rs6000-ibm-aix4.1.4.0
 checking host system type... rs6000-ibm-aix4.1.4.0 
 (... lines deleted)

The reason seems to be the following code in configure

 echo "#! $SHELL" >conftest.sh
 echo  "exit 0"   >>conftest.sh
       cp -a conftest.sh /tmp
 chmod +x conftest.sh

The option "-a" seems to me not very portable (GNU cp specific?).

Greetings

Jens

-- 
Dr. Jens Schleusener                T-Systems debis Systemhaus
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