What's the difference between "xinstall" and "file copy" and "copy"? Here's what I've found: - xinstall has the -W option so you can say "xinstall -W src a b c d dst" to copy a whole bunch of named files from src to dst. It doesn't look like file copy can do that. - file copy can copy directories. It doesn't look like xinstall can do that. - file copy preserves modification dates. xinstall does not. - copy is the same as file copy. What's the difference between "xinstall -d" and "file mkdir"? I don't know. And if there's a reason to use "file mkdir", should there be an alias "mkdir" for it? The guide should explain these differences, and when one should prefer one option over the other.
Hey Ryan! Can you please put this request as a ticket on the "Website & Documentation" milestone? Better tracking of the suggestion can be done there, thanks! -jmpp On Dec 10, 2007, at 9:06 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
What's the difference between "xinstall" and "file copy" and "copy"? Here's what I've found:
- xinstall has the -W option so you can say "xinstall -W src a b c d dst" to copy a whole bunch of named files from src to dst. It doesn't look like file copy can do that. - file copy can copy directories. It doesn't look like xinstall can do that. - file copy preserves modification dates. xinstall does not. - copy is the same as file copy.
What's the difference between "xinstall -d" and "file mkdir"? I don't know. And if there's a reason to use "file mkdir", should there be an alias "mkdir" for it?
The guide should explain these differences, and when one should prefer one option over the other.
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On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:06 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
What's the difference between "xinstall" and "file copy" and "copy"? Here's what I've found:
- xinstall has the -W option so you can say "xinstall -W src a b c d dst" to copy a whole bunch of named files from src to dst. It doesn't look like file copy can do that. - file copy can copy directories. It doesn't look like xinstall can do that. - file copy preserves modification dates. xinstall does not. - copy is the same as file copy.
What's the difference between "xinstall -d" and "file mkdir"? I don't know. And if there's a reason to use "file mkdir", should there be an alias "mkdir" for it?
This is a good comparative analysis, thanks. The file command in Tcl obviously predates xinstall, the latter being written when I noticed that a lot of people were doing "system install ..." and the option of building it in meant that I could provide better error reporting and a few other features (like -W) down the road. I didn't really compare and contrast it thoroughly with the file procedure, though I probably should have just to establish the areas of overlap. I do know that xinstall is certainly a lot more powerful than file copy when it comes to specifying target ownership, modes and so on. For that reason alone, it might be a good idea to simply add the notion of preserving modification dates and such (I'm not sure what you mean by "copying directories" above). - Jordan
participants (3)
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Jordan K. Hubbard
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Juan Manuel Palacios
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Ryan Schmidt