From: Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 04:33:30 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: (copy_file): Allow installation from non-directory (rather than only regular)
X-Git-Tag: TEXTUTILS-1_19q~54
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=0682a5efe9be735dac040185c73e581f641279fc;p=thirdparty%2Fcoreutils.git

(copy_file): Allow installation from non-directory (rather than only regular)
files.  Suggestion from Charles Karney.
---

diff --git a/src/install.c b/src/install.c
index 914cd63130..c31c1a7c00 100644
--- a/src/install.c
+++ b/src/install.c
@@ -370,9 +370,13 @@ copy_file (char *from, char *to, int *to_created)
       error (0, errno, "%s", from);
       return 1;
     }
-  if (!S_ISREG (from_stats.st_mode))
+
+  /* Allow installing from non-regular files like /dev/null.
+     Charles Karney reported that some Sun version of install allows that
+     and that sendmail's installation process relies on the behavior.  */
+  if (S_ISDIR (from_stats.st_mode))
     {
-      error (0, 0, _("`%s' is not a regular file"), from);
+      error (0, 0, _("`%s' is a directory"), from);
       return 1;
     }
   if (stat (to, &to_stats) == 0)