From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mailsrv.cs.umass.edu (mailsrv.cs.umass.edu [128.119.240.136]) by sourceware.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E064E38708CB for ; Mon, 4 Jan 2021 12:30:02 +0000 (GMT) DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.3.2 sourceware.org E064E38708CB Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=cs.umass.edu Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=moss@cs.umass.edu Received: from [192.168.0.14] (c-24-62-203-86.hsd1.ma.comcast.net [24.62.203.86]) by mailsrv.cs.umass.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5A2D440167C5; Mon, 4 Jan 2021 07:30:02 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: moss@cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Native symbolic link behavior is broken and makes backups using Cygwin command line tools impossible To: cygwin@cygwin.com References: <1d853aa0-4cbe-b92c-8d9f-53fc72371a7b@SystematicSw.ab.ca> From: Eliot Moss Message-ID: <2f9a63f8-37e3-5ea0-1541-608cf59faffa@cs.umass.edu> Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2021 07:30:03 -0500 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.12.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, KAM_DMARC_STATUS, NICE_REPLY_A, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW, SPF_HELO_NONE, SPF_PASS, TXREP autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on server2.sourceware.org X-BeenThere: cygwin@cygwin.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: General Cygwin discussions and problem reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 12:30:04 -0000 On 1/4/2021 5:36 AM, Matt D. via Cygwin wrote: > Did you try any of my test cases? This can't and doesn't work for the > reasons I outlined in my previous message: > > $ cp -av folder_a/a folder_b/ > 'folder_a/a' -> 'folder_b/a' > cp: cannot create symbolic link 'folder_b/a': No such file or directory > > $ cp -dv folder_a/a folder_b/ > 'folder_a/a' -> 'folder_b/a' > cp: cannot create symbolic link 'folder_b/a': No such file or directory > > $ cp -Pv folder_a/a folder_b/ > 'folder_a/a' -> 'folder_b/a' > cp: cannot create symbolic link 'folder_b/a': No such file or directory So did you mkdir folder_b first? I don't think cp will create it for you. I tried the commands above with folder_b not existing and got the behavior you indicated, but when I created folder_b first, all three cp commands worked. This overall behavior does not surprise me. On the other hand, if I have folder_b non-existing and do (e.g.) cp -rav folder_a folder_b then it _does_ create folder_b, and also copies the links. HTH - Eliot Moss