FAQ: cp and mv: the –reply=X option is deprecated

[Bob Proulx]

New entry added in the FAQ for the 'cp --reply=no' issue.

Bob

  
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#cp-and-mv-the-reply-option-is-deprecated

In coreutils release 5.90 (2005-09-29) the cp and move --reply=X
option was deprecated.  There was a discussion of the problems and
issues on the bug-coreutils mailing list.  As a result of the
discussion it was then offically deprecated.  The discussion may be
found here in the mailing list archives:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2005-06/msg00160.html

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2005-07/msg00009.html

The '--reply' options only controlled the action when prompts would
have been asked.  It did not have any affect for when the program
would not have prompted at all.  This was so confusing to people that
the '--reply' option has been deprecated in the current stable release
and the option is scheduled for removal in the future.  It did not do
what you want it to do anyway.

The best recommended alternative is to use 'rsync' command using the
'--ignore-existing' option.

  $ rsync -a --ignore-existing file1 file2