bug#13601: mv should not silently lose file extended attributes
Paul Eggert <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.gnu.core-utils.bugs |
|---|---|
| Organization | UCLA Computer Science Department |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On 2026-08-15 13:57, Pádraig Brady wrote: > > Note cp does give warnings if you explicitly ask it to preserve xattrs: > > $ cp --preserve=xattr file.attr vfat/ > cp: setting attributes for 'vfat/file.attr': Operation not supported Since mv ordinarily acts like 'cp --preserve=all' when copying, presumably mv should warn in this situation if cp warns. Also, if no mv options other than -i and -f are used, a diagnostic is needed to conform to the spirit of POSIX, as the POSIX spec says for this situation "If the duplication of the file characteristics fails for any reason, mv shall write a diagnostic message to standard error, but this failure shall not cause mv to modify its exit status."[1] Contrary to the original bug report POSIX does not require (and seemingly does not allow) the mv to be aborted if file characteristics are lost in the copy, but at least the user should be warned about the situation. [1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/mv.html#tag_20_83_03