Bug 3340

Summary: clarify "original" and "mode" in scp(1) manpage
Product: Portable OpenSSH Reporter: Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo>
Component: DocumentationAssignee: Assigned to nobody <unassigned-bugs>
Status: CLOSED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: djm, dtucker
Priority: P5    
Version: 8.6p1   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Bug Depends on:    
Bug Blocks: 3339    

Description Christoph Anton Mitterer 2021-08-15 04:09:32 AEST
Hey.

In that manpage, the -p option uses the term "original", but it's not directly clear, whether this means the source file or the (original) destination files (which I think it rather indicates).

It seems however that it's the source file that's meant, so I guess that would be a clearer wording.


Also "modes" (in -p and -P above) might be ambiguous:
E.g. POSIX standard uses the definition:
>File Mode
>An object containing the file mode bits and some information
>about the file type of a file.

But here only the file mode bits are meant.

Perhaps something like "permission mode" or maybe the above "file mode bits" might be better? And maybe adding that any ACLs wouldn't be preserved.


Cheers,
Chris.
Comment 1 Darren Tucker 2021-09-10 17:14:07 AEST
Fixed, thanks.  It now says:

-P port
       Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.  Note that
       this option is written with a capital `P', because -p is already
       reserved for preserving the times and mode bits of the file.

-p     Preserves modification times, access times, and file mode bits
       from the source file.
Comment 2 Christoph Anton Mitterer 2021-09-11 00:38:06 AEST
Thanks :-)
Comment 3 Damien Miller 2022-02-25 13:57:16 AEDT
closing bugs resolved before openssh-8.9