Re: cp -n diff

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

On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 10:50:52PM +0200, Zafer Aydo?an wrote:
> 
> It is not encouraged to use use -n in scripts, neither is -i.
> Both are not POSIX compliant but both are useful.
> This feature is part of the FreeBSD repository since almost a decade
> and it is common behaviour in modern Unix operating systems.

(Except that it isn't, since the two "modern Unix operating systems"
 you specifically named use _different_ syntax)

> To have consistency across the BSD's it is also named -n.
> I'm not suggesting to import everything from FreeBSD,
> but why being narrow-minded ? If its useful, we should have it.

Are you familiar with the phrase "opportunity cost"?  The opportunity
cost of extraneous, duplicative features is not zero -- neither for
the people maintaining them nor for the people using them, since
elegance and conceptual clarity are not without value.

Thor