Improve docs on 'cp -r', noting the recent 2329 changes

[tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs.git] / src / allmydata / scripts / cli.py

diff --git a/src/allmydata/scripts/cli.py b/src/allmydata/scripts/cli.py
index e240c9ecd1682af1a8e1b1823884f5fe4f864578..18ecc6590c573913015b782921cc0faaa1ed88f9 100644 (file)
--- a/src/allmydata/scripts/cli.py
+++ b/src/allmydata/scripts/cli.py
@@ -252,9 +252,14 @@ class CpOptions(FilesystemOptions):
 
     This command still has some limitations: symlinks and special files
     (device nodes, named pipes) are not handled very well. Arguments should
-    probably not have trailing slashes. 'tahoe cp' does not behave as much
-    like /bin/cp as you would wish, especially with respect to trailing
-    slashes.
+    not have trailing slashes (they are ignored for directory arguments, but
+    trigger errors for file arguments). When copying directories, it can be
+    unclear whether you mean to copy the contents of a source directory, or
+    the source directory itself (i.e. whether the output goes under the
+    target directory, or one directory lower). Tahoe's rule is that source
+    directories with names are referring to the directory as a whole, and
+    source directories without names (e.g. a raw dircap) are referring to the
+    contents.
     """
 
 class UnlinkOptions(FilesystemOptions):