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diff --git a/doc/s6-hiercopy.html b/doc/s6-hiercopy.html deleted file mode 100644 index e8dd2ed..0000000 --- a/doc/s6-hiercopy.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,66 +0,0 @@ -<html> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en" /> - <title>s6-linux-utils: the s6-hiercopy program</title> - <meta name="Description" content="s6-linux-utils: the s6-hiercopy program" /> - <meta name="Keywords" content="s6 linux administration root utilities hiercopy cp -a" /> - <!-- <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://skarnet.org/default.css" /> --> - </head> -<body> - -<p> -<a href="index.html">s6-linux-utils</a><br /> -<a href="http://skarnet.org/software/">Software</a><br /> -<a href="http://skarnet.org/">skarnet.org</a> -</p> - -<h1> The <tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> program </h1> - -<p> -<tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> copies a directory structure recursively. -</p> - -<h2> Interface </h2> - -<pre> - s6-hiercopy <em>source</em> <em>destination</em> -</pre> - -<ul> - <li> <tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> recursively copies <em>source</em> to -<em>destination</em>, which is created if it doesn't exist. -The permissions are preserved. The owner and group are preserved -if the user is the superuser. </li> - <li> It exits 0 on success and 111 on temporary failure. </li> -</ul> - -<h2> Notes </h2> - -<p> - Copying files and browsing through directories is one of Unix's -weakest points, and <tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> is not meant to work around -the problem; it's only a quick hack that I needed to boot my embedded -platform. I originally planned to write the ultimate <tt>cp</tt> utility, -portable and reliable and featureful and everything - while needing -approximately a hundred times less resources than GNU <tt>cp</tt> does, -of course. But I eventually dropped the idea: it's just impossible to -design, much less write, such a utility. -</p> - -<ul> - <li> You can't make it portable because there's no universal standard. -There is no portable way of creating device special files, for instance. -So <tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> appears here instead of in -<a href="http://skarnet.org/software/s6-portable-utils/">s6-portable-utils</a>: -the platform where I needed that kind of tool is Linux. </li> - <li> You can't make it reliable because Unix's set of filesystem -management primitives is just too weak. It lacks a lot of atomic -operations, and filesystem transactions. As a result, <tt>s6-hiercopy</tt> -is a walking race condition and should <strong>absolutely not</strong> -be considered instant when used in a multitasking environment. -But then, <tt>cp -a</tt> shouldn't either. </li> -</ul> - -</body> -</html> |