Cp --sparse=always -> cp --sparse=auto?

Old.

sudo cp --sparse=always ~/Whonix-Gateway-*.qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/Whonix-Gateway.qcow2

New.

sudo cp --auto ~/Whonix-Gateway-*.qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/Whonix-Gateway.qcow2

Any reason for that change?

Shorter. Easier to remember and does the exact same thing.

Shorter, easier to remember, yes.

From cp’s man page.

Does the exact same thing?

By default, sparse SOURCE files are detected by a [u]crude heuristic[/u] and the corresponding DEST file is made sparse as well. That is the behav- ior selected by --sparse=auto. Specify --sparse=always to create a sparse DEST file whenever the SOURCE file contains a long enough sequence of zero bytes. Use --sparse=never to inhibit creation of sparse files.

“crude heuristic” sounds scary, like “maybe subject to change in newer versions of cp”, “maybe distribution specific”, “maybe not working with further images”. I guess the benefits aren’t outweighing the risk and this is asking for trouble and we better stick with the more robust --sparse=always.