Re: cp info/man page: cp -p add: 'often must be root to preserve owner'

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Sun, 14 Oct 2001, Paul Jarc wrote:

> "Eli Zaretskii" <address@hidden> wrote:
> > From: Dan Jacobson <address@hidden>
> >> The cp info/man page or its footnote needs to add a note saying that the
> >> owner etc. won't be preserved if you're not root on many systems,
> >
> > Really?  What exactly did you type at the shell's prompt to invoke
> > `cp', and which attributes were not preserved?  And on what OS was
> > that?
> 
> Ownership won't be preserved if you're not root because most systems
> don't allow file giveaways.  Likewise, group ownership won't be
> preserved if the group is not your primary group or one of your
> supplementary groups.

I know that.  I just wondered what exactly is hiding behind that
``etc.'' in the original report (see above).  What you say is one
interpretation, but a bug report shouldn't leave us guessing.