I know this is slightly OT, but since we're talking cp here...

There is a small, but important difference between cp -f on Linux and FreeBSD (and, I assume, other BSDs). On Linux, if the destination file exists, it is overwritten with target permissions preserved. On FreeBSD, target is removed, and the default umask permissions are used when new file is created.

I was bitten bad by that one a year ago when developing a test app on Linux then moving to a FreeBSD environment.

I guess the point is, get into the habit of chmodding (and chowning - depends on context) a file when cp'ing it. If you rely on the OS, you can get bitten when you least expect it.

.02

cLive ;-)

janitored by ybiC: Retitled from "OT: note on cp" for slight improvement in descriptiveness

In reply to OT: Beware subtle cross-platform differences in cp by cLive ;-)
in thread cp -p in perl? by BuddhaNature

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