Currently any copy operation done by meson is a full (duplicating) copy even if the operating system and file system support copy-on-write file copies.

Applies to both fs.copyfile & meson install

Tools / languages that already make use of CoW file copies:

• cp, mv, and install from GNU coreutils since 9.0 (2021-09-24)
  • enabled by default since 9.1 (2022-04-15)
• jdk20 (2023)
• rust & cargo (ca. 2019)
• dotnet (2022)
• python3
  • shutil: add reflink=False to file copy functions to control clone/CoW copies (use copy_file_range) python/cpython#81338
  • GH-73991: Add pathlib.Path.copy() python/cpython#119058
    • unlike the other mentioned mentioned tools / languages in python this was implemented with a new API instead of transparently making the old API call copy_file_range etc.