$ touch s
$ strace -P d -e inject=%stat:retval=0 -e inject=openat:error=ENOENT:when=1 cp s d 2> /dev/null
$ file d
d: cannot open `d' (No such file or directory)
$ strace -P d -e inject=%stat:retval=0 -e inject=openat:error=ENOENT:when=1 gnu-cp s d 2> /dev/null
$ file d
d: empty