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Retain File Timestamp

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# 1  
Old 03-18-2009
Retain File Timestamp
There are directories of files that I have to run the dos2ux command on to get ride of the carriage return characters. Easy enough, but I have to retain the original timestamps on the files. I am thinking that I am going to have to strip off the timestamp for each file and convert it to unix time and then run touch against each file after recreating the file with dos2ux. This is probably as clear as mud, but does anyone have any elegant ideas for accomplishing this?

I am planning to loop through the listing but my elegance lags when I try am trying to figure out the best way to do the conversion. Or am I missing some tool available on HP-UX that will not alter the timestamp but will remove the ^M from the end of every line? Thanks in advance.
# 2  
Old 03-18-2009
If your unix has "touch -r <reference file> filename" is is fairly easy to "cp -p" the original file to preserve the file modification timestamp then edit the original file and restore the file modification timestamp with "touch -r". This method will not retain the file creation timestamp.
# 3  
Old 03-18-2009
file ctime == file inode time - there is no standard file creation time for UNIX files
# 4  
Old 03-18-2009
The touch -r is the ticket. I was unfamiliar with that flag and it works perferctly within a loop while converting the files to unix format. Thanks so much!
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