Re: mv, cp ask anyway though bound to fail

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
> Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> Does it "cost much more" to check first that too then before asking?
>> E.g., if I were a secretary, I would double check if the lunch were
>> already cancelled before asking the boss if he wants to attend.
>
> But the only way to find out is to try.  ACLs allow file systems to
> "change their minds", so you don't know for sure whether the lunch was
> cancelled until you show up and try to eat.  The same principle
> applies here.
>
> That being said, the prompt could be improved, as Eric wrote.
>
> Also, this is the only place I know of in coreutils where a mode
> is output only in bare octal notation; we might as well be friendlier
> and output a symbolic mode as well.
>
> Here's a proposed patch.
>
> 2007-03-16  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
>
>       * src/copy.c: Include filemode.h.
>       (overwrite_prompt): Say "try to overwrite", not "overwrite", to
>       make it clearer that the attempt may fail.  Problem reported by
>       Dan Jacobson in:
>       http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2007-03/msg00130.html
>       Output symbolic mode as well as numeric.
>       * tests/mv/i-2 (fail): Adjust to new prompt format.

Thank you both, again :-)
I've applied that, too.