This blog post is odd because it keeps on hinting about a difference between `-r' and `-R' and links to the source code but never actually says what it is. I'll quote the OpenBSD manual that the post mentions but does not link to for some reason:
> Historic versions of the cp utility had an -r option. This implementation supports that option; however, its use is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links or FIFOs.
Only clear to those with a heavy UNIX background-- I understood and correctly interpreted it on first read, but the concept of a "regular file" is a bit in the wonk territory for most users, though the implication on symbolic links is a very practical one that surely lead to the removal (in the implementations where it was removed) of this option, since its very surprising that copying a directory heirarchy would cause symbolic links to become copies of what they linked to, instead of remaining symbolic links in the resulting directory.
bariumbitmap · · focus · HN ↗
> Historic versions of the cp utility had an -r option. This implementation supports that option; however, its use is strongly discouraged, as it does not correctly copy special files, symbolic links or FIFOs.
<a href="https://man.openbsd.org/cp" rel="nofollow">https://man.openbsd.org/cp
embedding-shape · · focus · HN ↗
The snippet of code makes it very clear what the difference is, no?
flag_copy_as_regular = 1 VS flag_copy_as_regular = 0, where regular would be a "regular" and not "special" file.
rezonant · · focus · HN ↗