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

[Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "Eli" == Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

Eli> 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.

Eli> I know that.  I just wondered what exactly is hiding behind that
Eli> ``etc.'' in the original report (see above).  

Thats my escape hatch excuse in case I say something wrong... here it
means "group, and maybe time, etc." :-)

Eli> What you say is one interpretation, but a bug report shouldn't
Eli> leave us guessing.

Paul> This isn't specific to cp; that's probably why is isn't in cp's
Paul> documentation.

OK, but you've got to admit that 99% of the time the user will run
into the odd behavior and then look for an answer on the cp man
page... I don't think he will first have read the GNU Big Book about
Unix, if there is any.

Therefore some hint about the mystery could be placed on the cp man page.
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