Re: [PATCH]: cp: make -a option preserve SELinux context and xattrs with reduced diagnostics

[Jim Meyering]

Ondřej Vašík <address@hidden> wrote:

> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> Ondřej Vašík <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > What about to split that into two patches? One for SELinux changes and
>> > one for xattr changes (commited after 7.1) - to make it more safe - and
>> > to give other distros more time to fix the leak...
>>
>> That sounds even better.  I see that debian stable's libattr1-dev
>> is at 1:2.4.43-2, which means it has the leak.
>> Please do.
>
> Ok, split patches attached.
> Note: in the xattr patch there is no NEWS at the moment as it would
> cause conflict when added after 7.1 release - I guess something like
> "cp: -a option tries to preserve xattrs but doesn't inform about
> failure" would be ok.

Thanks again.
I'm ready to push your first one, with the following additional
documentation changes:
[I fixed the "." vs. -> problem separately ]

>From e0b7ad746671f161578d725a05d2323da0d69d8a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:18:23 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] tweak texinfo

---
 doc/coreutils.texi |   17 +++++++++--------
 1 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index ba6f6e0..42234d3 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -7261,11 +7261,11 @@ cp invocation
 Preserve as much as possible of the structure and attributes of the
 original files in the copy (but do not attempt to preserve internal
 directory structure; i.e., @samp{ls -U} may list the entries in a copied
-directory in a different order). Try to preserve SELinux security context,
-but do not fail when this is not succesful. Diagnostic errors are not
-displayed for this non-guaranteed attribute. Option doesn't preserve
-extended attributes(xattr) at the moment.
-Equivalent to @option{-dR --preserve=all} with few exceptions.
+directory in a different order).
+Try to preserve SELinux security context, but ignore any failure to do that
+and print no corresponding diagnostic.
+This option does not preserve extended attributes(xattr) at the moment.
+Equivalent to @option{-dR --preserve=all} with a few exceptions.

 @item -b
 @itemx @address@hidden@var{method}]}
@@ -7417,9 +7417,10 @@ cp invocation
 they are preserved by this option as well.
 @itemx all
 Preserve all file attributes.
-Equivalent to specifying all of the above. Ignore failure
-to preserve SELinux security context or extended attributes,
-but show diagnostic messages about failures.
+Equivalent to specifying all of the above, but with the difference
+that failure to preserve SELinux security context or extended attributes
+does not change @command{cp}'s exit status.
address@hidden does diagnose such failures.
 @end table

 Using @option{--preserve} with no @var{attribute_list} is equivalent
--
1.6.2.rc1.209.gfe624