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The man page for install describes the --compare option like so:

      -C, --compare
              compare each pair of source and destination files, and 
              in some cases, do not modify the destination at all

However, there is no explanation or further reference as to what "in some cases" exactly means.

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The full install manual gives more details:

Compare content of source and destination files, and if there would be no change to the destination content, owner, group, permissions, and possibly SELinux context, then do not modify the destination at all. Note this option is best used in conjunction with --user, --group and --mode options, lest install incorrectly determines the default attributes that installed files would have (as it doesn’t consider setgid directories and POSIX default ACLs for example). This could result in redundant copies or attributes that are not reset to the correct defaults.

You can see this locally by running info coreutils install.

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