scp: Problem when source and destination are identical

[Jason Stone]

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> It would be interesting to know how rcp is able to handle this...

ssh.com's scp also successfully copies a file on top of itself.  OpenSSH
opens the destination file O_TRUNC, while rcp and ssh.com scp don't.

In my opinion, opening the file O_TRUNC is the right thing to do because
in the usual case (scp from one system to another), you expect the
destination file to be truncated to 0 length before you start - you don't
want to start copying a new file over and old one and then end up with a
weird combination of both should the scp die in the middle....


 -Jason

 ---------------------------
 If the Revolution comes to grief, it will be because you and those you
 lead have become alarmed at your own brutality.         --John Gardner



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