Cabal: outstanding copyFile bug?

[Simon Marlow]

Frederik Eaton wrote:
>>I've fixed this in System.Directory.copyFile, although there doesn't
>>seem to be a foolproof way to do it: if you unlink before opening,
>>there's a chance that someone else can create the file in between. 
>>Still, this appears to be what install(3) does.
> 
> 
> Since there seem to be compelling reasons to want both "unlink" and
> "overwrite" behaviors available in the standard library, I suggest
> keeping the current copyFile semantics and moving the new "unlink"
> behavior to another function. The second function could be called
> "installFile". Then, Cabal should be changed to use "installFile"
> instead of "copyFile" (probably via a compatibility library).
> 
> Summary of behavior differences:
>   - effect on hard, soft links
>   - effect on ACLs, permissions, ownership, inode number
>   - effect on destinations without write permission

I've copied the useful points from this discussion into a comment in 
System.Directory, backed out the change I made yesterday, and filed a ticket for 
doing what you suggest above.

Cheers,
	Simon