Hi Frank, Apologies for the delayed response.
You wrote: > % install -C -p x y > install: options --compare (-C) and --preserve-timestamps are mutually > exclusive > Try 'install --help' for more information. > > [...] > > I see no explanation there why these options should be mutually exclusive. > (RTFS did not reveal any insight either.) > > If the error message is unnecessary, please remove it. > > Otherwise, please provide an explanation why and possible workarounds. > > What I want to achieve is to preserve timestamps and to avoid doing extra > work. > Both goals seem rather natural, and I see no reason why they should not be > combined. > > (In fact it seems "-p" should make it *easier* to implement "-C" as > timestamps will compare equal when nothing's changed. Then again, > need_copy() doesn't seem to care about times at all, so why should > it be incompatible with "-p"?) The rationale for this was posted on the mailing list when the '-C' option was introduce. Here is the relevant text [1]: > With this option install checks an existing destination file and if it is not > different (by content, owner, group and mode) from source, the file is not > installed. Preserving destination's original mtime can significantly decrease > time of building when a system library is reinstalled but the header files > are not changed at all. I'm not sure if that is still the case today. I think I am okay with allowing the combination, but lets see if anyone else has differing opinions. I might be missing some history here. Collin [1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2009-01/msg00122.html
