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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?

3 Answers 3

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

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  • I've deliberately changed the last-modified date on files to keep certain people happy. You definately cannot trust it, at all. Jul 6, 2009 at 21:33
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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

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  • touch(1) being a standard command in all Unix/Linux/BSD distributions that I have seen. Jul 7, 2009 at 7:57
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You can use robocopy command line which copies the modify date from the original file. Also there are a GUI tool for robocopy.

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  • Also only vista supplied robocopy preserves folder dates.
    – Sergei
    Jul 7, 2009 at 7:35

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