GNU bug report logs - #31675
Existing directories and files permissions are not being kept intact

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Existing directories and files permissions are not being kept intact
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2018 09:20:42 +0530

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

Suppose I have the following directory structure

/
| - destination (mode=0755)
     | - dir (mode=0755)
          | - file.txt (mode=0644)
| - source
     | - dir (mode=0755)
          | - file.txt (mode=0644)

My user has a umask of 0077. Now if I run the following cp command

cp -aR --no-preserve=mode /source/* /destination

I think the mode of destination/dir should stay as 0755 but it changes to
0700. Is this expected?

I am using coreutils 8.26-3 on Debian Stretch

Thanks & Regards
Gunjan Gupta

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>, 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 15:20:11 -0700

tag 31675 notabug
close 31675
stop

On 31/05/18 20:50, Gunjan Gupta wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Suppose I have the following directory structure
> 
> /
> | - destination (mode=0755)
>      | - dir (mode=0755)
>           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
> | - source
>      | - dir (mode=0755)
>           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
> 
> My user has a umask of 0077. Now if I run the following cp command
> 
> cp -aR --no-preserve=mode /source/* /destination
> 
> I think the mode of destination/dir should stay as 0755 but it changes to
> 0700. Is this expected?
> 
> I am using coreutils 8.26-3 on Debian Stretch

This is a little surprising as cp didn't create /destination/dir in this case.
However if it did create that dir, then the mode would be expected.
So cp is keeping the destination consistent whether it previously existed or not.

cheers,
Pádraig

Message #15 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>
Cc: 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2018 04:00:57 +0530

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

++ bugs mailling list

On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 3:59 AM Gunjan Gupta, <viraniac <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> No cpvdidnt created that directory. Directory was existing on the machine
> before.
>
> It used to be fine before 8.26 version of coreutils and we use to supply
> patches to our customer that use to use cp to copy files to the destination.
>
> Starting from 8.26, its broken. What will happen if we use the same
> command to copy files to say /etc directory. I had one of our patch that
> used to do that. I tried installing it on new system and whole system broke
> because of this.
>
> Don't you think cp should preserve permissions for existing files and
> directory? Using user's umask for new files sounds ok but why cp has to
> change mode for existing files and directories?
>
> Is there a way I can tell cp to preserve destination permissions now?
>
> Thanks & Regards
> Gunjan Gupta
>
> On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 3:50 AM Pádraig Brady, <P <at> draigbrady.com> wrote:
>
>> tag 31675 notabug
>> close 31675
>> stop
>>
>> On 31/05/18 20:50, Gunjan Gupta wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > Suppose I have the following directory structure
>> >
>> > /
>> > | - destination (mode=0755)
>> >      | - dir (mode=0755)
>> >           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
>> > | - source
>> >      | - dir (mode=0755)
>> >           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
>> >
>> > My user has a umask of 0077. Now if I run the following cp command
>> >
>> > cp -aR --no-preserve=mode /source/* /destination
>> >
>> > I think the mode of destination/dir should stay as 0755 but it changes
>> to
>> > 0700. Is this expected?
>> >
>> > I am using coreutils 8.26-3 on Debian Stretch
>>
>> This is a little surprising as cp didn't create /destination/dir in this
>> case.
>> However if it did create that dir, then the mode would be expected.
>> So cp is keeping the destination consistent whether it previously existed
>> or not.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Pádraig
>>
>>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #18 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 15:43:28 -0700

On 03/06/18 15:30, Gunjan Gupta wrote:
> ++ bugs mailling list
> 
> On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 3:59 AM Gunjan Gupta, <viraniac <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> No cpvdidnt created that directory. Directory was existing on the machine
>> before.
>>
>> It used to be fine before 8.26 version of coreutils and we use to supply
>> patches to our customer that use to use cp to copy files to the destination.
>>
>> Starting from 8.26, its broken. What will happen if we use the same
>> command to copy files to say /etc directory. I had one of our patch that
>> used to do that. I tried installing it on new system and whole system broke
>> because of this.
>>
>> Don't you think cp should preserve permissions for existing files and
>> directory? Using user's umask for new files sounds ok but why cp has to
>> change mode for existing files and directories?
>>
>> Is there a way I can tell cp to preserve destination permissions now?
>>
>> Thanks & Regards
>> Gunjan Gupta
>>
>> On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 3:50 AM Pádraig Brady, <P <at> draigbrady.com> wrote:
>>
>>> tag 31675 notabug
>>> close 31675
>>> stop
>>>
>>> On 31/05/18 20:50, Gunjan Gupta wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Suppose I have the following directory structure
>>>>
>>>> /
>>>> | - destination (mode=0755)
>>>>      | - dir (mode=0755)
>>>>           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
>>>> | - source
>>>>      | - dir (mode=0755)
>>>>           | - file.txt (mode=0644)
>>>>
>>>> My user has a umask of 0077. Now if I run the following cp command
>>>>
>>>> cp -aR --no-preserve=mode /source/* /destination
>>>>
>>>> I think the mode of destination/dir should stay as 0755 but it changes
>>> to
>>>> 0700. Is this expected?
>>>>
>>>> I am using coreutils 8.26-3 on Debian Stretch
>>>
>>> This is a little surprising as cp didn't create /destination/dir in this
>>> case.
>>> However if it did create that dir, then the mode would be expected.
>>> So cp is keeping the destination consistent whether it previously existed
>>> or not.

Actually looking more, this is a relatively recent change:
https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=v8.19-145-g24ebca6

Also in retrospect, using --no-preserve=mode should
have no guarantees on the mode bits of the destination.
So it's probably best to leave existing mode bits in place.

Let me see if I can come up with a patch...

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #21 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>,
 Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>, 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 15:49:16 -0700

Pádraig Brady wrote:
> This is a little surprising as cp didn't create /destination/dir in this case.
> However if it did create that dir, then the mode would be expected.
> So cp is keeping the destination consistent whether it previously existed or not.

Sorry, but I am not following this analysis. The --no-preserve=mode option says 
"do not copy the mode of the source to the destination", and yet cp is copying 
the mode of the source to the destination. How is that not a bug?

A longer analysis: the documentation for --preserve says what should happen in 
the absence of the --preserve option (namely, that permissions of existing 
destinations are unchanged), and --no-preserve=mode is pretty clearly equivalent 
to the absence of --preserve=mode.

So I don't see how the current behavior can be considered to match the 
documentation. I don't see how it'd be that useful, either.

Message #24 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2018 16:28:52 -0700

On 03/06/18 15:43, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> Actually looking more, this is a relatively recent change:
> https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=v8.19-145-g24ebca6
> 
> Also in retrospect, using --no-preserve=mode should
> have no guarantees on the mode bits of the destination.
> So it's probably best to leave existing mode bits in place.
> 
> Let me see if I can come up with a patch...

I pushed a fix in:
https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=5e7b892

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #27 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>
Cc: 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2018 05:03:19 +0530

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

That was fast, I will test it and let you know if I face any issues


Thanks & Regards
Gunjan Gupta

On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 4:58 AM Pádraig Brady, <P <at> draigbrady.com> wrote:

> On 03/06/18 15:43, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> > Actually looking more, this is a relatively recent change:
> >
> https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=v8.19-145-g24ebca6
> >
> > Also in retrospect, using --no-preserve=mode should
> > have no guarantees on the mode bits of the destination.
> > So it's probably best to leave existing mode bits in place.
> >
> > Let me see if I can come up with a patch...
>
> I pushed a fix in:
> https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=5e7b892
>
> thanks,
> Pádraig
>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #30 received at 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>
Cc: 31675 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31675: Existing directories and files permissions are not
 being kept intact
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2018 11:20:47 +0530

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Nice, it works!!! I only applied the patch to the copy.c file and didn't
patched the test and NEWS file on my system though.

I have another question. Can I tell cp to only preserve the executable mode
for a file?

Thanks & Regards
Gunjan Gupta

On Mon, Jun 4, 2018 at 5:03 AM, Gunjan Gupta <viraniac <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> That was fast, I will test it and let you know if I face any issues
>
>
> Thanks & Regards
> Gunjan Gupta
>
> On Mon 4 Jun, 2018, 4:58 AM Pádraig Brady, <P <at> draigbrady.com> wrote:
>
>> On 03/06/18 15:43, Pádraig Brady wrote:
>> > Actually looking more, this is a relatively recent change:
>> > https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;
>> h=v8.19-145-g24ebca6
>> >
>> > Also in retrospect, using --no-preserve=mode should
>> > have no guarantees on the mode bits of the destination.
>> > So it's probably best to leave existing mode bits in place.
>> >
>> > Let me see if I can come up with a patch...
>>
>> I pushed a fix in:
>> https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=5e7b892
>>
>> thanks,
>> Pádraig
>>
>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

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