Re: cp -n diff

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 08:30:35PM +0200, Zafer Aydo?an wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> attached is a patch that implements the -n option for cp, which skips existing
> files on the target.

Please do not check this in.

As if the "functionality" weren't of questionable enough utility all
on its own, as you point out two other implementations of ls use two
different option letters to do this, so it cannot be the case that one
would want this so-called "feature" for script compatibility.

It's Unix.  Use the tools.  In other words, please do not try to jam
every single useful 3 line shell script you can think of (nor every
single handy invocation of any other command) duplicatively into
every single other program in the source tree.

Thor