scp: Problem when source and destination are identical

[David Terrell]

On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 03:02:08PM +0200, Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 12:13:42PM +0200, Markus Friedl wrote:
> > > Which is why everyone else agreed that a switch to change between "overwrite
> > > in place" and "do atomic replace" is a good idea.
> > 
> > no, this is why "do atomic replace" does not work.
> > 
> > "overwrite in place" works fine, even if the use cannot create a new
> > file because of the directory permissions.
> > 
> > "overwrite in place" works fine, even if the filesystem is almost full.
> > 
> > image copying a 100MB file with "do atomic replace" if you have 50MB of
> > free space.
> 
> You don't seem to be reading what others write.
> 
> There are situations where "atomic replace" doesn't work - and there are
> other situations where "overwrite in place" messes up applications trying
> to read the file in just that moment.
> 
> The Unix way is "give 'em a choice" - which is exactly what the switch 
> is good for.

scp is an rcp replacement.

If you want to extend something, add this functionality to the sftp 
subsystem, I say.

-- 
David Terrell            | But remember that "layman" is just a polite 
dbt at meat.net             | word for "idiot." 
http://wwn.nebcorp.com/  |  - Neal Stephenson