Bug#856898: meld: copying within Meld changes time stamps

[Paul Schlüter]

Package: meld
Version: 3.16.4-1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

when I copy files or directories within Meld, the copies often get a slightly
different time stamp (difference up to 1 micro second). I wouldn't have noticed
this, if the "younger" files/dirs were sometimes not marked accordingly.

Example:
1. Start with a directory src/ that contains some files "file*", empty dirs
"empty*" and non-empty dirs "non-empty*". "ls --full-time" shows ...

src/
2017-03-05 15:33:23.243862000 +0100 empty+000ns
2017-03-05 15:33:23.243862044 +0100 empty+044ns
2017-03-05 15:30:58.417297176 +0100 empty+176ns
2017-03-05 15:10:56.020244755 +0100 empty+755ns
2017-03-05 15:39:52.319551913 +0100 empty+913ns
2017-03-05 12:56:09.036606000 +0100 file+000ns
2017-03-05 12:56:09.036606060 +0100 file+060ns
2017-03-05 15:24:37.712274516 +0100 file+516ns
2017-03-05 12:57:06.357629994 +0100 file+994ns
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+000ns
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+000ns/file
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818167 +0100 non-empty+167ns
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818167 +0100 non-empty+167ns/file

2. Compare src/ with an empty directory dest/; then copy src/ within Meld to
dest/. The time stamps within dest/ are shown below (with comparison to src/;
rounding is to integer micro second). Moreover "younger marks" (small stars at
the icons) are noted (Y) when present.

dest/
2017-03-05 15:33:23.243861000 +0100 empty+000ns           -1000ns      Y src
2017-03-05 15:33:23.243862000 +0100 empty+044ns           rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 15:30:58.417297000 +0100 empty+176ns           rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 15:10:56.020244000 +0100 empty+755ns           rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 15:39:52.319551000 +0100 empty+913ns           rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 12:56:09.036606000 +0100 file+000ns            equal
2017-03-05 12:56:09.036606000 +0100 file+060ns            rnd down
2017-03-05 15:24:37.712274000 +0100 file+516ns            rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 12:57:06.357630000 +0100 file+994ns            rnd up
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+000ns       equal
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+000ns/file  equal
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+167ns       rnd down     Y src
2017-03-05 17:01:26.648818000 +0100 non-empty+167ns/file  rnd down     Y src

I don't see a simple rule.

I (and probably most other users) expected time stamp (dest) = time stanp (src)
as by copying with "cp -a …". If this is difficult to realize, it would be fine
if the "younger mark" could be suppressed for times that differ by less than,
say, 10 micro seconds.

Paul.




-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.utf8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages meld depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend]  0.26.0-2+b1
ii  gir1.2-gtksource-3.0                         3.22.2-1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-module                      0.30-3
ii  libgtk-3-0                                   3.22.8-1
ii  libgtksourceview-3.0-1                       3.22.2-1
ii  patch                                        2.7.5-1
ii  python-gi                                    3.22.0-2
ii  python-gi-cairo                              3.22.0-2
pn  python:any                                   <none>

Versions of packages meld recommends:
ii  yelp  3.22.0-1

meld suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information