tar vs cp

[Mark Terribile]

>> tar handles symbolic links properly, whereas
>> cp will "copy through"  the contents of the link.
>
> Also true for cp -R? :-)

> No, but not all systems have "cp -R", although
> FreeBSD does.  Likewise for the "-p" or
> "--preserve-permissions" option...

tar requires two executions, one to create the
archive and one to remove it.  This has advantages
and disadvantages.  cpio -p  can do it in one pass,
but requires that you expand the directories with
 find  or provide a list file.  Again, sometimes a
good thing, sometimes not.  cpio  can also create a
tree of links if you are on the same file system.
Useful for moving large files with minimal disk
activity (remove the original links afterwards).

                                       Mark Terribile


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