Add a -n option to mycp that suppresses the normal check for the existence of the destination files

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

# mycp -- copy a file with safety checks

nocheck=0

if [ "$1" = "-n" ] ; then
nocheck=1 # don't check for file existence
shift
fi

if [ "$#" -ne 2 ] ; then
echo "Source file name? \c" ; read from
echo "Destination file name? \c" ; read to
else
from="$1"
to="$2"
fi

# See if the destination file already exists

if [ $nocheck -eq 1 -a -e "$to" ] ; then
echo "$to already exists; overwrite (yes/no)? \c"
read answer

if [ "$answer" != yes ] ; then
echo "Copy not performed"
exit 0
fi
fi

# Either destination doesn't exist, "yes" was typed
# or the user specified -n to bypass the test

cp $from $to # proceed with the copy