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Re: cp command bug
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From: |
Bob Proulx |
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Subject: |
Re: cp command bug |
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Date: |
Tue, 28 May 2002 02:34:32 -0600 |
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> I accidently typed the following: cp *inc</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I had two files that matched in the
> directory. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>The first match
> copied on top of the second match.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
> face=Arial size=2>I see no idea why anybody would expect this
> result. This should be sealed off and return an error message
> since this action destroyed a file of mine I had to recover
Unfortunately the cp command only sees what the shell expands first.
Your shell is expanding the * character into individual matching
filenames. The cp command never new that you had typed in '*'. It
saw only that you had told it to copy one file to another.
Try this. You will see by the echo command what cp saw as arguments.
I can only think that as a workaround you might want to use the cp -i
option.
echo cp *inc
Prints out:
cp a.inc b.inc
You might want to check out the FAQ and look in the sections that talk
about using echo to see what the shell does to the command line. Look
in the sections with 'globbing'.
http://www.gnu.org/software/fileutils/doc/faq/core-utils-faq.html
Hope that helps.
Bob
- cp command bug, Brian Wasserman, 2002/05/27
- Re: cp command bug,
Bob Proulx <=