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As there is currently no way to get access to the mtime of a file on a
remote machine in a portable way, the vc-workfile-unchanged-p
function is advised to call an tramp specific function for remote files.
The tramp-vc-workfile-unchanged-p function uses the functioning VC
diff functionality to determine if any changes have occurred between the
workfile and the version control master.
This requires that a shell command be executed remotely, a process that is notably heavier-weight than the mtime comparison used for local files. Unfortunately, unless a portable solution to the issue is found, this will remain the cost of remote version control.