New command line option `--orig` to rename conflicting files about stow HOT 10 OPEN

More sketching:

What if we instead moved the backup files into a designated backup directory that mirrors directory structure in the same way that stow packages do. E.g.

$ tree -a --charset ascii
.
|-- .git
|-- .gitignore
`-- my-configs
    `-- etc
        `-- ntp.conf
$ cat .gitignore
/defaults/
$ stow my-configs -vvt / --backupdir defaults
...
MKDIR: defaults       # because it didn't exist already
MKDIR: defaults/etc   # because it didn't exist already
COPY: /etc/ntp.conf => defaults/etc/ntp.conf  # or this could be a rename...
REMOVE: /etc/ntp.conf         # ...if file system boundaries are not crossed
LINK: etc/ntp.conf => /etc/ntp.conf
...
$ tree -a --charset ascii
.
|-- defaults
|   `-- etc
|       `-- ntp.conf
|-- .git
|-- .gitignore
`-- my-configs
    `-- etc
        `-- ntp.conf

If the user wanted to, they could also append a filename extension of their choice to all backup files. If they didn't give such an extension, nothing would be appended. E.g.:

$ stow my-configs -vvt / --backupext .orig
...
RENAME: /etc/ntp.conf => /etc/ntp.conf.orig
LINK: etc/ntp.conf => /etc/ntp.conf
...

It would also be possible to combine --backupdir and --backupext in a natural way:

$ stow my-configs -vvt / --backupdir defaults --backupext .orig
...
COPY: /etc/ntp.conf => defaults/etc/ntp.conf.orig
REMOVE: /etc/ntp.conf
LINK: etc/ntp.conf => /etc/ntp.conf
...

from stow.

Great work in outlining this, lassik! This feature would be reeeeally useful.

from stow.

👍

from stow.

Yes thanks, this is a good feature request. Please look at patch(1) for ideas on how to define options which control the algorithm for choosing where to back up to.

from stow.

Thanks for the interest!

Good tip on patch(1). The above proposed --backupdir and --backupext seem equivalent to patch's --prefix and --suffix, respectively. (Except that patch's --prefix need not be a directory if it doesn't end in a slash.)

patch's naming scheme support seems very comprehensive with the --basename-prefix and --version-control options (numbered backup files, etc.) in addition to the above. Do you think anyone would find these useful in stow's context? My personal intuition is that they would be over the top.

from stow.

Yeah, that seems like overkill.

from stow.

This would be a nice feature. Did it make it in?

from stow.

Nope, someone has to code it first ;-)

from stow.

Would be really cool if it would be possible to overwrite existing files.

from stow.

If someone badly needs this (like I do!) and can't wait for this to be merged into upstream, and is on Arch, you're welcome to my PKGBUILD in the meantime.

from stow.