Re: [PATCH] cp --update --preserve

[Paul Eggert]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> writes:

> Here's a thought: we could extend --update to have an optional operand
> specifying a fuzz for timestamps.

Following up on my own idea, here's perhaps a better thought: `cp -pu'
could keep track, for each destination filesystem, the timestamp
resolution for that filesystem.  The first time that `cp' copies a
file to the filesystem, it could "put its toe in the water" by trying
to set the destination file's timestamp (to, say,
(floor (current_time) + 0.999999)), and then examine what happens to
the timestamp; that way `cp' can determine the timestamp resolution
for that filesystem, so it can deduce the fuzz itself without having
the user specify any fuzz.

This way, we wouldn't need to add any options to "cp".