Re: Patch for "mv -s" option

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I just wanted to release the patch to see if the idea would be applied.
>
> For that, you'll need the opinion of the coreutils maintainer.  For
> example, he may prefer that it be an option to "cp" rather than "mv",
> since it's creating logical copies.

It's a tough call.

mv is essentially a wrapper around the system's rename syscall,
and resorts to using copy/remove only as an exception.
Also, once mv has completed, the source FILEs are usually gone.

On the other hand, I can see why you'd want to associate it
with `mv', since it's removing the actual source FILEs
and replacing them with symlinks.  Like mv, if it resorts
to using copy, then it'd make sense to use the same
options (preserve as many attributes as possible).

Vacillating even more, do I want cp ever to remove its source FILEs?

But this is enough like both cp and mv that it'd be silly to
add the functionality via a separate command.

For now, I'm inclined to add an option to cp rather than mv,
but am open to arguments to the contrary.