up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I need to know if I can trust the Modified Date attribute of a file, there is any way to make a file seem older than it truly is?

link|improve this question
74% accept rate
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

No, you cannot trust any of the date/time stamps on a file. It is relatively straightforward to change the timestamps

link|improve this answer
I've deliberately changed the last-modified date on files to keep certain people happy. You definately cannot trust it, at all. – Mark Henderson♦ Jul 6 '09 at 21:33
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

You can't trust it - there are tools (such as 'touch') which allow you to set such file metadata.

http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man1/touch.1.asp

link|improve this answer
touch(1) being a standard command in all Unix/Linux/BSD distributions that I have seen. – grawity Jul 7 '09 at 7:57
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You can use robocopy command line which copies the modify date from the original file. Also there are a GUI tool for robocopy.

link|improve this answer
Also only vista supplied robocopy preserves folder dates. – Sergei Jul 7 '09 at 7:35
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.