1. cp -r a a cp: cannot copy a directory, `a', into itself, `a/a' as per this the it is not allowable to copy a into a.But its doing 2. cp -s b ../ cp: `../b': can make relative symbolic links only in current directory its a symbolic link and should not restrict to current directory.i have checked it in kernel 2.6.21.5 and 3.04 .Please check it and let me know if its corrected or not.
Thanks and Regards Subrat Kumar Ojha
