bug#79446: 9.7: cp(1): Unnecessary writes / incorrect logging messages

On 2025-09-17 18:19, Paul Eggert wrote:
> 
> Yes, it's all fairly mysterious. Perhaps someone with more time can look 
> into it.

Following up on that a bit. I think part of the problem here is that cp 
is designed to copy things as efficiently as possible. It's not designed 
to make minimal changes to the destination (which it sounds like is what 
you want), so it's perhaps not the best tool for the job you're trying 
to do. You might want to look into alternative tools (rsync, maybe?) 
that are more aligned to your needs.