On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 10:17:54AM +0100, Lars Gullik Bj?nnes wrote:
Anyway the problem with copy_file is that the requirement on having target non-existant is not possible to turn off.
Sounds like there should be a copy_file() overload (or a default argument) with a "no clobber" flag saying whether or not to overwrite. This would be analoguous to cp(1)'s -f switch and sh(1)'s >| redirection operator, which give you the option of clobbering an existing file even when in safe-by-default mode (i.e. using "cp -i" or "set -o noclobber") Looking at the implementation of copy_file() I'm wondering why it isn't done like this (this provides noclobber support too): std::fstream out; if (noclobber) { out.open(to_file_ph.string().c_str(), std::ios::in); if (out.is_open()) { // file exists boost::throw_exception( filesystem_error( "boost::filesystem::copy_file", from_file_ph, to_file_ph, fs::detail::system_error_code() ) ); } } std::ifstream in(from_file_ph.string().c_str()); out.open(to_file_ph.string().c_str(), std::ios::out); out << in.rdbuf(); It may not be blindingly fast on all systems (though there's no reason it can't be, with a good filebuf) but it's a lot simpler than a loop with read(2)/write(2) and file descriptors that have to be closed manually, and would work on all platforms. jon -- "In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these." - Paul Harvey