Re: cp -u should skip copying a file to itself

[Jim Meyering]

Ed Avis <address@hidden> wrote:
> % touch foo foo
> % cp -u foo foo && echo yes
> cp: `foo' and `foo' are the same file
>
> I expected that since -u says
>
>        -u, --update
>               copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the
>               destination file or when the destination file is missing
>
> it would not attempt to copy the file in this case (since the file is
> not newer than itself) and cp would return a true exit status.

Sounds like it'd be worthwhile to change that, if you can do it
in an obviously safe manner.  If you write a patch, please
follow the guidelines in HACKING:

  http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=HACKING;hb=HEAD