Re: preserve timestamps when installing headers

On Tue, Oct 12, 2021 at 01:22:50PM +0300, Alexander Kuzmenkov wrote:
> I noticed that `make install` updates modification time for all
> installed headers. This leads to recompilation of all dependent
> objects, which is inconvenient for example when working on a
> third-party extension. A way to solve this would be to pass
> `INSTALL="install -p"` to `configure`, to make `install` preserve the
> timestamp. After this, a new problem arises -- the
> `src/include/Makefile` doesn't use `install` for all headers, but
> instead uses `cp`. This patch adds `-p` switch to `cp` invocation in
> these files, to make it preserve timestamps. Combined with the
> aforementioned install flag, it allows a developer to hack on both
> postgres and a third-party extension at the same time, without the
> unneeded recompilation.

The use of cp instead of $(INSTALL_DATA) for the installation of the
headers comes from a703269, back from 2005. How do numbers compare
today, 16 years later?
--
Michael