Script to copy creation date over top of modified date? Post: 302970969

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Script to copy creation date over top of modified date? Post 302970969 by bakunin on Thursday 14th of April 2016 07:52:23 AM

04-14-2016

Registered User

Quote:

Originally Posted by toysareforboys

I know how to touch every file recursively, but no idea how to read a files creation date then use that to touch the modification date of that file

OK, one problem after the other:

1) How to get the creation date
Use the command istat. For details see man istat.

2) How to set the date of a file
Use touch -t <time>. See the man page of touch for details.

3) How to circle through a set of files
Use the find-command. Basically, find starts at some "starting point" directory and works its way recursively from there, finding every filesystem entry there is. You can exclude (or include) certain files and/or directories, so that only a part of the whole set is produced. Once the set is what you want you can add a certain action to each item found that way by adding the "-exec"-clause. Here is an example:

Code:

find /some/dir -type f -name "AB*" -exec cp {} /other/place \;

This will start in "/some/dir", only include files ("-type f") in the result set, further restrict the result set only to names beginning with "AB" ("-name "AB*") and finally execute the command cp {} /other/place for each file found that way. The "{}" is a placeholder for the respective filename found that way which will be filled in by the find-command.

For details: again, see the man-page.

4) How to change the date from one format to another
You haven't told us which system you are on. If you have the date-utility from GNU: it can do that. If not: you will need to get one of the many solutions already published. Search the forum (or even the internet) for "date calculation" or something such and you will find a myriad of hits.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

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backup

backup(1M)																backup(1M)

NAME

       backup - backup or archive file system

SYNOPSIS

       [-archive]

DESCRIPTION

       The  command  uses find(1) and cpio(1) to save a archive of all files that have been modified since the modification time of on the default
       tape drive should be invoked periodically to ensure adequate file backup.

       The option suppresses warning messages regarding optional access control list entries.  backup(1M) does not backup optional access  control
       list  entries  in  a  file's access control list (see acl(5)).  Normally, a warning message is printed for each file having optional access
       control list entries.

       The option causes backup to save all files, regardless of their modification date, and then update using touch(1).

       prompts you to mount a new tape and continue if there is no more room on the current tape.  Note that this prompting does not occur if  you
       are running from cron(1M).

       The  option  causes to start a file system consistency check (without correction) after the backup is complete.	For correct results, it is
       important that the system be effectively single-user while is running, especially if is allowed to automatically fix whatever  inconsisten-
       cies it finds.  does not ensure that the system is single-user.

       You can edit to customize it for your system.  Several local values are used that can be customized:

	      specifies which directories to back up recursively (usually
			     meaning all directories);

	      file name where start and finish times, block counts, and error messages
			     are logged;

	      file name whose date is the date of the last archive;

	      file name that is checked by
			     to remind the next person who logs in to change the backup tape;

	      file name where start and finish times and
			     output is logged.

       You  may  want  to  make  other	changes,  such	as  whether or not does automatic correction (according to its arguments), where output is
       directed, other information logging, etc.

       In all cases, the output from is a normal archive file (or volume) which can be read using with the option.

   File Recovery
       creates archive tapes with all files and directories specified relative to the root directory.  When recovering files from an archive  tape
       created by you should be in the root directory and specify the directory path names for recovered files relative to the root directory When
       specifying the directory path name for file recovery by do not precede the leading directory name with a slash.	If  you  prefer,  you  can
       also use with a option to determine how files and directories are named on the archive tape before attempting recovery.

WARNINGS

       Refer to in cpio(1).

       When runs out of tape, it sends an error to standard error and demands a new special file name from

       To continue, rewind the tape, mount the new tape, type the name of the new special file at the system console, and press

       If  is being run unattended from cron(1M) and the tape runs out, terminates, leaving the process still waiting.	Kill this process when you
       return.

FILES

       parameterized file names

SEE ALSO

       cpio(1), find(1), touch(1), cron(1M), fbackup(1M), frecover(1M), fsck(1M), acl(5).

																	backup(1M)