mv --reply=

I've never had the occasion to use "--reply=[yes|no|query]" with `mv`
before this.  It looked like a good solution for me in a recent task, so
it tried it.

Snafu!

I had a large directory of mp3's and a smaller directory of mp3's --- _some_
of which were duplicates (by filename) of files in the larger directory.
I wanted to move the non-dupes (only) into the larger directory.

From inside the smaller directory:

$ mv --reply=no *.mp3 ../LargeDirectory/

I was left with no files in the smaller directory and, indeed, _all_ of
the files were moved -- with the duplicates overwriting the files in the
larger directory.

I did some testing.
That's the way it's working here. `mv --reply=no` seems to act as if I
was replying "yes".

I have `alias mv="mv -i"` set in my .bashrc, so I also did tests with

$ /bin/mv --reply=no .........

Same results.

`man mv` states:

--reply={yes,no,query}
specify how to handle the prompt about an  existing
destination file

At www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manu...nvocation.html, I
find this on the "--reply" option:

*Deprecated: to be removed in 2008.*

OK .......... but this happened on Mandrake 10.2, aka MDK LE2005.

What am I doing wrong?

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones    | jonz          | W3DHJ  | linux
38.24N  104.55W  |  @ config.com | Jonesy |  OS/2
*** Killfiling google posts: <http://jonz.net/ng.htm>

Allodoxaphobia wrote:

> What am I doing wrong?

First, --reply is a GNU-only, non-standard option and should be avoided if
possible.

Now let's look at what the info page for mv says about --reply:

Note that `--reply=no' has an effect only when `mv' would prompt
without `-i' or equivalent, i.e., when a destination file exists and is
not writable, standard input is a terminal, and no `-f' (or equivalent)
option is specified.

Does this make sense for your case?

--
All the commands are tested with bash and GNU tools, so they may use
nonstandard features. I try to mention when something is nonstandard (if
I'm aware of that), but I may miss something. Corrections are welcome.