Why does usermod not move home directory?

[Brian Scarbrough]

In HP-UX 11.0 and 11.11 when using command:

usermod -d /home/user2 -m -l user2 user1

It creates a copy of /home/user1 instead of moving it to /home/user2.

The man page states it "moves" the directory, but it really just copies. Works fine in Solaris though.

[Chris Wilshaw]

According to the details on this link

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=565009

usermod wasn't desgined to do this (on HP-UX). As you say, it works on Solaris.

Checking the patch database gives no result, so it looks like it's not been patched yet (if HP have any plans to do so).

[Fred Ruffet]

Brian,

Agree that it's a little bit confusing. HP-UX man page tells it does so :
"-m Move the user's home directory to the directory specified with the -d option. If the home directory exists, the directory must have read and execute permission by group, where group is the primary group of the login."

Anyway, Chris is right : it doesn't. :)

Regards,

Fred