An incomplete fix for behavior of the "mv --backup" command, that was released with the RHBA-2011:1074 errata advisory, caused the "cp --backup" command to work incorrectly. When used with a directory as a source argument, the "cp --backup" command did not backup individual files within the directory but whole directory. This update corrects this problem and the "--backup" feature of the "cp" utility now works as intended again.
Description of problem:
With the previous version of "cp" (coreutils 5.97-23.el5_6.4), the behavior of the --backup against a directory was to take any existing files in the directory, rename with a backup suffix, and insert the new file With the newer coreutils (5.97-34.el5), the behavior is now that the destination directory is renamed with the backup suffix, and a new directory is created containing only files being copied in.
The version of "cp" is still 5.97, so I believe this is a bug rather than intended behavior, possible caused by other cp-related bugfixes.
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
coreutils 5.97-23.el5_6.4
How reproducible: Always
Example, with structure
/dest/files/somefile.txt 5c9597f3c8245907ea71a89d9d39d08e
/dest/files/anotherfile.txt b8694d827c0f13f22ed3bc610c19ec15
/source/files/somefile.txt c576ec4297a7bdacc878e0061192441e
Steps to Reproduce:
From the "/source" directory, the following command would be run:
cp --backup --suffix=_old files /dest/
Actual results:
/dest/files_old/somefile.txt 5c9597f3c8245907ea71a89d9d39d08e
/dest/files_old/anotherfile.txt b8694d827c0f13f22ed3bc610c19ec15
/dest/files/somefile.txt c576ec4297a7bdacc878e0061192441e
Expected results:
/dest/files/somefile.txt_old 5c9597f3c8245907ea71a89d9d39d08e
/dest/files/somefile.txt c576ec4297a7bdacc878e0061192441e
/dest/files/anotherfile.txt b8694d827c0f13f22ed3bc610c19ec15
Additional info:
RedHat: See also Case 00611703
Thanks for report, confirmed (of course with -r option added). RHEL-6 cp behaves the expected way, so something probably went wrong in RHEL-5 update. I suspect the fix for #627285 (coreutils-5.97-mv-backupdirs.patch) .
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New Contents:
An incomplete fix for behavior of the "mv --backup" command, that was released with the RHBA-2011:1074 errata advisory, caused the "cp --backup" command to work incorrectly. When used with a directory as a source argument, the "cp --backup" command did not backup individual files within the directory but whole directory. This update corrects this problem and the "--backup" feature of the "cp" utility now works as intended again.