Comment 6 for bug 267565

Tested with Inkscape 0.48.4 and 0.48+devel r12195:

1) 'Edit > Copy', 'Edit > Paste':
   always relinks pasted copies of clones to pasted copy of original
2) 'Edit > Duplicate':
   behavior depends on preference setting (introduced in r6570)
3) 'Layer > Duplicate current layer':
   does not respect the preference setting for 'Duplicate'
   (never relinks duplicated clones to duplicated originals)

pygmee wrote on 2008-09-09:
> Plus the actual behavior of the duplicate layer command is not
> consistent with the copy-pasting of a original+clone selection.

It is not supposed to be consistent with 'Copy & Paste', it should be consistent with 'Edit > Duplicate' though:
- Copy&Paste always relinks (since 0.47), if both original and clones are part of the copied objects, and uses the system clipboard (export to temporary file, and import that temporary file again).
- Duplicate (selection, current layer) OTOH duplicates XML nodes, and does not involve the system clipboard at all.

Related current code:
SP_VERB_LAYER_DUPLICATE
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/view/12195/src/verbs.cpp#L1262>
sp_selection_duplicate
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/view/12195/src/selection-chemistry.cpp#L390>

Related earlier revisions:
5927: Added duplicate layer command. Fixes bug #171246.
 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/5927#src/verbs.cpp>
5948: new command: relink clone to copied object
 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/5948>
6570: optionally (default off) relink duplicated clones to the duplicated original
 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/6570>
7464: Edit > Duplicate Layer should duplicate hidden items, locked items, sublayers, everything
 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/7464#src/verbs.cpp>

AFAIU the changes from revision 7464 (to fix bug #267564) dropped support for the clones preferences setting when duplicating the current layer (which would have been respected with the older version, using 'sp_selection_duplicate' to duplicate the layer content, and then moving that duplicated content to a new layer)

Based on the current state in stable (0.48.4) and trunk (r12195), I'm proposing to change the report from feature request to actual bug:
'Duplicate current layer' should respect the preferences setting for clones whether to relink to duplicated original or not (current default: off).

@JazzyNico - would you agree with above proposal (and with tagging this with 'easy-fix' - it could be a suitable task for the 'two patches' rule (GSoC))?