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mv folders/files without changing modified date?

 
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# 1  
Old 09-27-2010
Question mv folders/files without changing modified date?
Hi all,

I'm using Red Hat Linux and want to move some folders and files around but not change the modified date. Is this possible?

I know cp has a -p flag which seems to do what I want, but this is a large volume of data so copying and deleting would not be feasible.
# 2  
Old 09-27-2010
Are they on the same filesystem ? If they are I was under the impression "mv" would work fine, if they arent then "cp" followed by "rm" is just as effective anyway.
# 3  
Old 09-27-2010
They are on the same file system. mv does not preserve modified date but stamps it as now.

I could do a copy and delete, but like I said this is a large volume of data so copy/delete would take a lot of time. If I have to I can do that, but I'm surprised there is no way to move files and preserve their modified date. I've looked and haven't found anything.
# 4  
Old 09-27-2010
Ah, are you talking the modification time, or the change time of the file ?
My modification date stays the same, but my change time changes:
Code:
> ls -l try2.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 ctaylor users 2162 2010-07-01 09:51 try2.c
> ls -ltc try2.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 ctaylor users 2162 2010-07-01 09:51 try2.c
> mv try2.c foo
> ls -l foo
-rw-r--r-- 1 ctaylor users 2162 2010-07-01 09:51 foo
> ls -ltc foo
-rw-r--r-- 1 ctaylor users 2162 2010-09-27 15:28 foo

# 5  
Old 09-27-2010
I'm sorry for not being clear. I didn't realize there were 2 dates. Smilie

The date I mean is indeed the date in "ls -l" and also the "Last Modified" date that appears in FTP programs like Filezilla.
# 6  
Old 09-27-2010
Ive just tried it on my rhel 5 box, and I get the same results. "mv" doesnt update my modified time. Can you do a similar test to my one above and show me your results ?
Thx.
# 7  
Old 09-27-2010
Thanks for that - from that experiment it seems that files moved with "mv" do get stamped their original modified time but folders do not. I'm assuming this is because Unix has to recreate the folder new, hence why the new timestamp.

So I guess now the question is - is there a way to move folders and preserve the modify timestamp?
 
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