Re: cp output format

[Haines Brown <haines@histomat.net>]

On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 03:10:09AM +1000, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
> 
> On 18/07/2015 9:40 PM, The Wanderer wrote:
> > mmv "file.~*~' "file.#1"
> 
> 
> Okay, well from the OP ...
> 
>   $ cp --backup=t file /destination/file
> 
> 
> First time use of mmv:
> 
>   $ mmv "file.~*~" "file.#1"
> 
> 
> However, the next time you try the cp again, it will create a new ~1~ as
> it doesn't exist and using mmv won't give the desired result.
> 
> 
> So you would need to do:
> 
>   $ (cd /destination; mmv "file.*" "file.~#1~")
>   $ cp --backup=t file /destination/file
>   $ (cd /destination; mmv "file.~*~" "file.#1")

Andrew, thanks for your addition to this interesting
thread. Unfortunately the implication is that no simple command will
copy a file to another directory and avoid clash by sequentially
numbering the copies. It will be simpler just to live with the "~"
signs.