#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files ---------------------------------+-------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Type: defect Status: new | Priority: minor Milestone: | Component: Cactus Version: development version | Keywords: ---------------------------------+-------------------- POSIX requires (http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/mv.html) that mv "hall write a prompt to standard error and read a line from standard input. If the response is not affirmative, mv shall do nothing more with the current source_file and go on to any remaining source_files." which is annoying if the operation is something like "mv foo.tmp foo".
Worse, some centers make "mv" behave as "mv -i" ie it asks about every single overwrite unless -f is also given.
Pull request is: https://bitbucket.org/cactuscode/cactus/pull-requests/48 /cactus-suppress-interaction-when-using-mv/diff
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+--------------------------------- Changes (by anonymous):
* status: new => review
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by Erik Schnetter):
POSIX does not requires this in general: This is only the case if either the "-i" option is given, or if the destination is not writable by the user.
If a computing centre changes "mv" to "mv -i", then this is usually done via a shell alias. Those do not apply in a shell script.
Is there a particular case where this is a problem? Almost every configure script uses "mv"; if "mv" was somehow broken, then most software would cease to function.
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by Roland Haas):
I agree that in general this should not be an issue and also that in general this type of thing is done via an alias and does (or at least should) not affect the build system. I admit to being confused why this happens and had listed four things for the person to check:
1. there is a non-standard version of mv on your system 2. there is an alias for mv that (for some reason) bash is using 3. you changed user accounts or similar so that the file /home/xu/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST.tmp has funny permissions / ownership 4. there is a function mv() declared (same as alias)
to be tested via:
1. "which mv" and "mv --version" and let me know the result 2. try "alias mv" and if that actually returns something please do "unalias mv" and compile again 3. do ls -l ~/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST.tmp and ls -l ~/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST.tmp to check on the permissions 4. check what "declare -f mv | grep mv" output and if there is a "mv ()" in the output please do "unset -f mv" to get rid of it then recompile
and it seems as if:
1.mv (GNU coreutils) 8.28 Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 2.nothing returned 3.The permission is -rw-r--r-- 4.The function exits.
This was reported in private email to me. So there seems to be no alias and mv itself is "(GNU coreutils) 8.28". There may be a mv bash function though that is not quite clear to me from the email. The question shown by mv is: {{{ mv /home/xu/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST.tmp /home/xu/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST mv: replace '/home/xu/Cactus/configs/sim/lib/LINKLIST', overriding mode 0644 (rw-r--r--)? }}} which is not a message that my mv (same coreutils version) would show (even with "-i").
So one would have to ask which center / Linux distribution the person is using.
Do you object to the patch on the basis that it does something wrong (or adds complexity and only fixes part of the issue) or are curious why this is happening? As far s I can tell, using "mv -f" is supported by POSIX and while it should never really be required, it also should never do harm.
Addendum: I *do* get that message if the target file is owned by a different *user* than mine. I will ask to check once more for funny ownership (though the error about mv has already gone away so the file no longer exists).
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by Erik Schnetter):
I am concerned because we are using "mv" in many places. Logically, we either should use "mv -f" everywhere, or nowhere. Otherwise we're implementing a work-around for a poorly understood problem in one place. That means possibly that we'll never encounter the problem again, and the work-around wasn't necessary, or that we'll have to implement the same work-around in many other places.
Cactus uses autoconf variables for many tools, including "ar", "ranlbi", "rm", "tar", etc. If you think that "mv -f" is beneficial, then I'd rather introduce a new configure variable "MV" that either can be set (on this system), or is set by default, to "mv -f".
I would draw a parallel to "rm" and "rm -f" in implementing this.
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by Steven R. Brandt):
For what it's worth, here are all the places we use "mv":
{{{ repos/flesh/lib/make/CCTK_Functions.sh repos/carpet/CarpetWeb/work-with-darcs.html repos/flesh/lib/make/known-architectures/linux repos/LORENE2/src/build.sh repos/flesh/lib/make/known-architectures/xt4-cray-linux repos/flesh/lib/make/make.configuration repos/flesh/lib/sbin/RunTestUtils.pl repos/CRL/py_components.py repos/flesh/lib/make/make.thornlib repos/flesh/lib/make/known-architectures/aix repos/simfactory2/bin/test-archive.sh repos/einsteinanalysis/WeylScal4/m/runmath.sh repos/ctthorns/m/runmath.sh repos/cactusutils/Formaline/src/make.configuration.deps repos/simfactory2/bin/distribute-gather repos/flesh/lib/make/known-architectures/bgl repos/EinsteinExact/m/Makefile repos/flesh/Makefile repos/mclachlan/doc/checkout.sh repos/flesh/doc/MaintGuide/Procedures.tex repos/flesh/lib/make/configure repos/CRL/GetComponents repos/mclachlan/m/runmath.sh repos/flesh/lib/make/install-sh repos/utils/Scripts/GetComponents repos/LORENE2/dist/makesystem.patch }}}
Do we want to change them all?
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by anonymous):
I did not check all those. The ones in flesh often (meaning all but the two lines that I changed) had a pattern: {{{ rm -f foo mv foo.tmp foo }}} so not "mv -f" was required.
Of he places you checked, do they use just "mv" or "mv -f" or the rm/mv combination?
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: review Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+---------------------------------
Comment (by Roland Haas):
Please note that I am tending to agree with the general sentiment that this is likely not a rabbit hole we want to descend into. So rather than using "mv -f" everywhere (also in code we do not ourselves control) it seems better to expect a properly functioning mv and a code tree that is somewhat sane.
#2154: Cactus: suppress interaction when using mv in make files --------------------------+--------------------------------- Reporter: Roland Haas | Owner: (none) Type: defect | Status: closed Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: wontfix | Keywords: --------------------------+--------------------------------- Changes (by Roland Haas):
* status: review => closed * resolution: => wontfix
Comment:
Seems to be too exotic to worry about. Interaction attempts during parallel make seem to end up with a make failure which is fine and a serial make may even allow a user to press "y" to overwrite the file.
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