"cp" behaves strangly when overwriting a file

[Hervé Pagès]

Hi,

It seems that overwriting an existing file with "cp" doesn't
exactly replace the old one by the new one but preserves the
old one and only replaces its content!


EXAMPLE: The file "toto" is not mine but is in my home:

  $ id
  uid=1003(hpages) gid=100(users) groups=100(users)

  $ umask
  0022

  $ cd
  $ ls -l toto
  -rw-rw-rw-  1 stranger  www       293 Apr 16 19:08 toto

I am NOT 'stranger' and I don't belong to group 'www'
but I have write permission on file 'toto'.

Now I want to override 'toto' with some file (I could also
do it with one of my files) :

  $ ls -l /home/bush/somefile
  -rw-r--r--  1 bush      apache   1534 Apr 10 17:20 /home/bush/somefile

  $ cp /home/bush/somefile toto -i
  cp: overwrite `toto'? y

  $ ls -l toto
  -rw-rw-r--  1 stranger  www      1534 Apr 16 19:25 toto

Ownership and mode have been preserved! Only content and
mtime have changed.

In case file 'toto' did not exist, I would have obtained:

  $ ls -l toto
  -rw-r--r--  1 hpages    users    1534 Apr 16 19:25 toto

I just wonder if this is a normal behaviour...


MY SYSTEM IS: Red Hat 8.0

  $ rpm -q fileutils
  fileutils-4.1.9-11

My /home partition is ext3 formatted.

--
Hervé Pagès
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INRP Paris
Tél : 01.46.34.90.42
Fax : 01.46.34.90.46