Ask HN: Why doesn't APFS always clone files when copying?

2 pointsamichail3 comments

For example, why doesn’t the cp command automatically clone files without requiring the -c flag?

That and implementation detail of the cp command, not an APFS feature.

If I had to guess why, it would be because there are many cases where cp could not create a clone, such as copying to a network file system.

MacOS could automatically determine whether a clone can be done though.

The behavior of cp is standardized across multiple operating systems. It should do the same thing regardless of where it is run.