Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: changing file times
Keywords: change file times
Message-ID: <10172@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 30 Oct 90 18:55:37 GMT
References: <28928@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 14

In article <28928@boulder.Colorado.EDU> englund@tramp.Colorado.EDU (ENGLUND TODD CHARLES) writes:
: 
: 	Does anyone know how to change the last date a file was altered?  Even
: if one doesn't happen to be a super-user?

perl -e '$DAYS = 24*60*60; utime(time, time - 30 * $DAYS, @ARGV)' file1 file2...

will change the mod time of all listed files to 30 days ago.  (And changes
the last access to the current time.)

You do, of course, have to be the owner of the files or superuser.

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov