Bug 449369 - curl --remote-time (-R) does not work
Summary: curl --remote-time (-R) does not work
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: curl
Version: rawhide
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jindrich Novy
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2008-06-02 14:00 UTC by Stepan Kasal
Modified: 2013-07-02 23:29 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2008-06-02 15:04:25 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Stepan Kasal 2008-06-02 14:00:03 UTC
Description of problem:
curl -R does not work

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
curl-7.18.1-2.fc10

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. touch stamp-file
2. curl -R an-URL-to-a-small-file
3. observe that a-small-file is newer than stamp-file

Additional info:
curl has a "feature" where an option is switched on iff it has been given odd
times and off if it has been given even times.

Obviously, it is then very important that the default does not change.

The version of curl quoted above has -R switched on by default.  Then each
script which tries to get timestamps right actually switches timestamping off.
An example of such a script is common/Makefile.common from cvs.fedoraproject.org

Comment 1 Stepan Kasal 2008-06-02 15:04:25 UTC
Sorry, it was my fault, I had -R in .curlrc.
Obviously, whith the "switch the option" kind of interpretation of options, one
should never have .curlrc, as it breaks all the scripts.
It would make sense to put a warning ".curlrc should not touch the default
option, it breaks scripts" to curl, but that would probably annoy other people.
I'll just refrain from using the misdesigned command line interface (rpm -e curl).

Comment 2 Stepan Kasal 2008-06-03 14:23:51 UTC
Actually, upstream reacted really nicely to the complaint (it wasn't the first
one of this type):
http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2008/06/03/curl-needs-a-fresh-take-on-command-line-options/

So the problem may actually get solved in a future release of curl.


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