"cp" behaves strangly when overwriting a file

Hi,

It seems that overwriting an existing file with "cp" doesn't
exactly replace the old one by the new one but preserves the
old one and only replaces its content!


EXAMPLE: The file "toto" is not mine but is in my home:

   $ id
   uid=1003(hpages) gid=100(users) groups=100(users)

   $ umask
   0022

   $ cd
   $ ls -l toto
   -rw-rw-rw-  1 stranger  www       293 Apr 16 19:08 toto

I am NOT 'stranger' and I don't belong to group 'www'
but I have write permission on file 'toto'.

Now I want to override 'toto' with some file (I could also
do it with one of my files) :

   $ ls -l /home/bush/somefile
   -rw-r--r--  1 bush      apache   1534 Apr 10 17:20 /home/bush/somefile

   $ cp /home/bush/somefile toto -i
   cp: overwrite `toto'? y

   $ ls -l toto
   -rw-rw-r--  1 stranger  www      1534 Apr 16 19:25 toto

Ownership and mode have been preserved! Only content and
mtime have changed.

In case file 'toto' did not exist, I would have obtained:

   $ ls -l toto
   -rw-r--r--  1 hpages    users    1534 Apr 16 19:25 toto

I just wonder if this is a normal behaviour...


MY SYSTEM IS: Red Hat 8.0

   $ rpm -q fileutils
   fileutils-4.1.9-11

My /home partition is ext3 formatted.

-- 
Hervé Pagès
[email protected]
CIR-BDD Bureau 93
INRP Paris
Tél : 01.46.34.90.42
Fax : 01.46.34.90.46