diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/coreutils.texi')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/coreutils.texi | 13 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index 136a3f7fa..6ed1171de 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -6920,10 +6920,15 @@ recursively. This default can be overridden with the @option{-H} options. If more than one of these options is specified, the last one silently overrides the others. -When copying to a symbolic link, @command{cp} normally follows the -link when creating or copying to a regular file, even if the link is -dangling. However, @command{cp} does not follow these links when -creating directories or special files. Also, when an option like +When copying to a symbolic link, @command{cp} follows the +link only when it refers to an existing regular file. +However, when copying to a dangling symbolic link, @command{cp} +refuses by default, and fails with a diagnostic, since the operation +is inherently dangerous. This behavior is contrary to historical +practice and to @acronym{POSIX}. +Set @env{POSIXLY_CORRECT} to make @command{cp} attempt to create +the target of a dangling destination symlink, in spite of the possible risk. +Also, when an option like @option{--backup} or @option{--link} acts to rename or remove the destination before copying, @command{cp} renames or removes the symbolic link rather than the file it points to. |