Re: "cp --no-preserve=mode" doesn't work as-expected

[Jim Meyering]

CJ Kucera <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hello...  I've run into a problem best described by a post to this list
> from 2003:
>
>> When the destination file does not exist cp uses the permissions of the
>> source file for creating the destination, as specified by POSIX.  Wouldn't
>> it be useful if --no-preserve=mode would cause cp to use the default
>> permissions (ie. 0666 - umask) instead?
>
> It was said at the time[1] that it'd be taken care of soon, but either
> it never was, or the older behavior's crept back into the tree as of
> 6.11.  It'd be great to have this behavior changed.  It would be quite
> useful to be able to copy files from readonly media (cd/dvd/etc) and not
> have to chmod afterwards.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -CJ
>
> [1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2003-02/msg00051.html

Thank you for reviving that thread.  Actually, I never did fix it.
I remember looking at it, and finding that any fix would be more
than a little invasive.  So, while the value of the fix is obvious,
there was also the matter of risk to the rest of the code, time to
write and test the patch, including the obligatory test suite additions,
so I added it to the TODO list:

  cp --no-preserve=X should not attempt to preserve attribute X
    reported by Andreas Schwab

Patches welcome.