bug#6405: cp from -MM to -M

[Bob Proulx]

Hi Peng,

If you would be so kind could you in the future address these types of
messages to address@hidden instead of bug-coreutils?  The
bug-coreutils address has been changed from "all-discussion" to
"bug-discussion" and along with that change every message here now
opens a bug ticket in the bug tracking system so that we don't lose
track of reported bugs.  The address@hidden address was created for
general discussion that isn't attached to the bug tracking system.
Thanks!

Peng Yu wrote:
> I'm trying to cp -MM to -M. But so far I don't have a way to do it.
> Would you please let me know what is the correct way to cp from -MM to
> -M?
> 
> $ cp -r -- -MM/ -- -M
> cp: target `-M' is not a directory

The first "--" stops further option recognition and processing.  So it
is only needed once.  The second one after the first one has turned
off option processing is therefore recognized as a filename.  Since
you have three files listed (the extra one being "--") then the target
is required to be a directory.

Instead just use one "--".  You wanted to say:

  $ cp -r -- -MM -M

Or traditional usage would use "./" to avoid the first character of
the string from starting with a dash.

  $ cp -r ./-MM ./-M

Since the strings do not start with a dash then they are not
recognized as command option arguments.

Bob