copy "archive" option (cp -a)

[aikar]

It would be nice if an archive option for copy was provided to mimic -a on cp, to copy a file/directory exactly as it was in the source.

at least primarily, file owner and file permissions

[RyanZim]

We already preserve permissions by default, and we have a preserveTimestamps option for preserving timestamps.

Not particularly clear on how file ownership works in Node.js, maybe the rest of the team knows more? @jprichardson @manidlou

[aikar]

it would be something to worry about when ran with sudo/root, to avoid the file being owned by root, to keep original owner.

https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_chown_path_uid_gid_callback

[RyanZim]

Given that I haven't heard anything from the rest of the team, I'm gonna say PR welcome. @aikar You want to try this?

[manidlou]

Yeah as @RyanZim said, we already have preserveTimestamps option and we set the file permissions (mode) through fs.chmod() after the copy is completed by default. But currently we don't do anything for ownership.

According to cp man page, cp -a means preserve=all which is preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,timestamps), if possible additional attributes: context, links, xattr, all.

[manidlou]

So the question is do we want to set the file ownership by default like what we currently do for mode or we wanna make it optional like preserveTimestamps?

[manidlou]

@jprichardson @RyanZim @JPeer264 ?^

[RyanZim]

IMO, our default behavior should match fs.copyFile, and any deviation from that should be an option, if supported.

I am a bit curious how frequently you'd be running as root though; which is the primary reason you'd want this feature.

[RyanZim]

As per #912; fs.cp is coming to Node core, and options there will be dictating our feature set, so closing as wontfix.