Re: symlinks and targets are not the same file

[Pádraig Brady]

Karl Berry wrote:
> [coreutils 8.1, gnu/linux]
> 
> $ touch foo 
> $ ln -s foo lnk
> $ \cp --no-dereference foo lnk
> cp: `foo' and `lnk' are the same file
> 
> Well, no, they're not.
> I expected the file foo to overwrite the symlink lnk.
> I can imagine that error without --no-dereference, but with it ... ?

As far as I understand it cp -P,--no-deref only applies to the source.
There are different rules for the destination, and you would
need to be explicit with --remove-dest for example.

cheers,
Pádraig.