Re: rsync to copy files?

[Warren Young <warren at etr-usa dot com>]

Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> I have learned that using 'rsync' to copy files improves the install 
> time quite dramatically for repeat installs.  

This should only be true when the transfer channel is much slower than 
the disks on which the files are stored.  rsync must read both the 
source and destination files, and do calculations on both, before it 
knows which parts of the files need to be transferred.  When the 
transfer channel is a network, it's likely that the time spent doing 
this extra disk I/O and calculation is more than offset by the savings 
in network time.  When the source and destination are on the same 
machine, there should be no such benefit.

Instead of chasing this solution, try patching autoconf to use 'cp -u' 
instead of 'install'.