Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:11269 comp.bugs.4bsd:1009
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Re: directory copying with cp; broken?
Message-ID: <8540@smoke.ARPA>
Date: 20 Sep 88 19:58:30 GMT
References: <35@ausonics.OZ>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) )
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 5

In article <35@ausonics.OZ> greyham@ausonics.OZ (Greyham Stoney) writes:
>... surely changing a directory into a regular file is a bit inconsistent?.

"cp" is not changing anything; it's making a copy of the contents of a
file.  It wouldn't be safe for that to be turned into an actual
directory since at least the "." entry in it would be incorrect.