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.

----

Copied from Debian's BTS up to this point.

Verified using the following simple script:

$ mkdir foo bar && for i in $(seq 20); do sleep 0.1; touch foo/file$i; done; echo "copy files from foo to bar using meld" ;meld foo bar; ls --full-time bar foo