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authorPádraig Brady <P@draigBrady.com>2010-04-12 08:46:37 +0100
committerPádraig Brady <P@draigBrady.com>2010-04-12 10:06:11 +0100
commitc420cfef77b9173a754806dc49deacabb436044f (patch)
treeb0032e660a6fa03cd375429b75494191bd65824b /doc
parentbe9a42e7ac4905a84fa18709c76aaadbfbe6108b (diff)
downloadcoreutils-c420cfef77b9173a754806dc49deacabb436044f.tar.xz
doc: clarify when cp and mv output xattr warnings
The 2010-03-26 commit, 4c38625e, "doc: fix info on cp --preserve..." was not entirely correct as cp --preserve=all does produce some xattr warnings. * src/copy.h: Update and clarify the comments for reduce_diagnostics and require_preserve_{xattr,context}. * doc/coreutils.texi (cp invocation): Update the -a and --preserve=xattr,context options to say when and which xattr warnings are output. (mv invocation): Mention that some warnings are output when preserving xattrs.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/coreutils.texi13
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index f549989c1..7561f2a61 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -7344,7 +7344,7 @@ directory structure; i.e., @samp{ls -U} may list the entries in a copied
directory in a different order).
Try to preserve SELinux security context and extended attributes (xattr),
but ignore any failure to do that and print no corresponding diagnostic.
-Equivalent to @option{-dR --preserve=all}.
+Equivalent to @option{-dR --preserve=all} with the reduced diagnostics.
@item -b
@itemx @w{@kbd{--backup}[=@var{method}]}
@@ -7507,18 +7507,18 @@ $ mkdir b c; (cd b; : > a; ln -s a b); cp -aL b c; ls -i1 c/b
@end smallexample
@itemx context
-Preserve SELinux security context of the file. @command{cp} will fail
-if the preserving of SELinux security context is not succesful.
+Preserve SELinux security context of the file, or fail with full diagnostics.
@itemx xattr
-Preserve extended attributes if @command{cp} is built with xattr support,
-and xattrs are supported and enabled on your file system.
+Preserve extended attributes of the file, or fail with full diagnostics.
+If @command{cp} is built without xattr support, ignore this option.
If SELinux context, ACLs or Capabilities are implemented using xattrs,
they are preserved by this option as well.
@itemx all
Preserve all file attributes.
Equivalent to specifying all of the above, but with the difference
that failure to preserve SELinux security context or extended attributes
-does not change @command{cp}'s exit status, or produce error messages.
+does not change @command{cp}'s exit status. In contrast to @option{-a},
+all but @samp{Operation not supported} warnings are output.
@end table
Using @option{--preserve} with no @var{attribute_list} is equivalent
@@ -8276,6 +8276,7 @@ original partition.
@cindex extended attributes, xattr
@command{mv} always tries to copy extended attributes (xattr), which may
include SELinux context, ACLs or Capabilities.
+Upon failure all but @samp{Operation not supported} warnings are output.
@cindex prompting, and @command{mv}
If a destination file exists but is normally unwritable, standard input