Re: make it possible to avoid symlinks in coreutils' bootstrap

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Paul,

* Paul Eggert wrote on Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 10:35:03PM CEST:
> 
> Also, it uses "cp -p", which more-closely approximates the symlink and
> gives builders a better idea of when the source file actually changed.

If you allow me my 2c, IMVHO this approximation is a bit skewed.  Under
the assumption that the most prominent user of timestamps is `make'
rather than the human issuing it, a plain `cp' more closely resembles
the semantics of symlinks: both avoid leaving you with outdated files,
unlike `cp -p'.  A failure case with `cp':
  cd gnulib && cvs up
  cd .../coreutils && make && ./bootstrap && make

Since gnulib-tool does not link/copy generated files, there are no
ordering issues among the files copied involved (unlike, say, with
`libtoolize --ltdl --copy').

Of course this break the comparison done by a human between copies of 
the same file in different trees.

Cheers,
Ralf