changes made to a file are also made in his copy

Hi,

I apologize for a trivial question but that's because I yet have not much experience with Linux.

I made, some time ago, a copy of the smb.conf file, for security reasons, before making to it any changes: 
(cp smb.conf.original smb.conf.original.orig )

Yesterday I wanted to give a look at the contents of the old file(smb.conf.original) that I had copied; but I found that both files have the same content.

I made other changes, in order to do experiments, and I have always seen that the changes made to a file are always shown on the other file.

The command "ls -l" shows the two files are colored blue which (I think) indicates that the files are a link to each other.

Since I am convinced that I used the "cp" command; my question is: 
which mistake can I have made ​​to create a  link of the file instead of a copy of it?

Thank you

Regards

Angelo

[g]

On 07/04/14 01:04, [e-mail] wrote:
<>
> The command "ls -l" shows the two files are colored blue which (I
> think) indicates that the files are a link to each other.

this is true.
> Since I am convinced that I used the "cp" command; my question is:
> which mistake can I have made ​​to create a  link of the file instead
> of a copy of it?

may not be a mistake.

"cp" is correct to usage to make a copy to a new file name.

run the command "man cp" to see arguments for "cp".

if you use "cp -l" it will make a link.

therefore, you may have an _alias_ that is causing problem.

to see if so, use the command of "alias" to see a list of your
aliases.

for my environment, i have;

]$ alias|grep cp
    alias cp='cp -i'
    ]$

hth.

[Ed Greshko]

On 07/04/14 14:04, [e-mail] wrote:
> I apologize for a trivial question but that's because I yet have not much experience with Linux.
>
> I made, some time ago, a copy of the smb.conf file, for security reasons, before making to it any changes:
> (cp smb.conf.original smb.conf.original.orig )
>
> Yesterday I wanted to give a look at the contents of the old file(smb.conf.original)that I had copied; butI found that both files have the same content.
>
> I made other changes, in order to do experiments, and I have always seen that the changes made to a file are always shown on the other file.
>
> The command "ls -l" shows the two files are colored blue which (I think) indicates that the files are a link to each other.
>
> Since I am convinced that I used the "cp" command;my question is:
> which mistake can I have made ​​to create a link of the fileinstead of a copy of it?

I don't rely on colors....

egreshko@meimei ~]$ ls -li nvidia*
8651522 -rw-rw-r--. 2 egreshko egreshko 135 Jan 30 07:29 nvidia
8651522 -rw-rw-r--. 2 egreshko egreshko 135 Jan 30 07:29 nvidia.orig

The i in the above shows the inode to be equal.  Meaning the files are hard linked.

[egreshko@meimei ~]$ ls -li nvidia*
8651522 -rw-rw-r--. 1 egreshko egreshko 135 Jan 30 07:29 nvidia
8652457 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 egreshko egreshko   6 Jul  4 15:34 nvidia.orig -> nvidia

Shows the inode to be different.  But noticed the way nvidia.org is presented.  This is a symbolic link.

[Joe Zeff]

On 07/04/2014 12:35 AM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> I don't rely on colors....

Neither do I, because I've found it to be almost impossible to find out 
exactly what each color means.  One of the first things I add to 
~/.bashrc is this line:

alias ls=ls

I put this down at the bottom to override any "helpful" aliasing that 
gets put in by default.

[g]

On 07/04/14 02:40, Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 07/04/2014 12:35 AM, Ed Greshko wrote:

<<>>

all of which is good information.

but, does answer question of his "cp" making links and why
i suggested he run "alias" to see what he has for aliases. ;-)

nap time on this side of the 'big pond'. later.

> all of which is good information.
>
> but, does answer question of his "cp" making links and why
> i suggested he run "alias" to see what he has for aliases. ;-)

============

Hi,

thanks for your answers ..

Now I have a clearer idea of the problem that, however, I have to better investigate.

regards

Angelo