Package: coreutils Version: 5.94-1 Severity: wishlist Too many times, new Linux & UN*X users accidentally run cp, mv, and rm incorrectly and screw up their systems. It would be wonderful if these commands had a mode in which they would just output what they would have done on the filesystem if they had been run in regular mode.
I think this proposal is at least reasonable because other critical Debian commands (some of which might even been considered less critical than these three trusty UN*X standbys) already have this feature; for example, our beloved apt-get with its wonderful Super Cow Powers :-). I hope my proposal doesn't seem like a waste of time, but I would feel like I were not doing my part as a user if I did not honestly and accurately convey my feedback. As we move to the future and SELinux security contexts and ACLs come into vogue, perhaps this feature becomes even more useful as the amount of context surrouding the accurate performance of these basic system tasks exceeds the capability of users to form a mental map of the effect of the commands. As an implementation note, perhaps it could be similar to the output of ls -l, except listing the owners / permissions and pathname of files that would be created (cp and mv) or files that would be deleted (rm). The exact way it is done is obviously not as important as the general principle. -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.16 Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Versions of packages coreutils depends on: ii libacl1 2.2.36-1 Access control list shared library ii libc6 2.3.6-7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libselinux1 1.30-1 SELinux shared libraries coreutils recommends no packages. -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
