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From: dickey@cwruecmp.UUCP (Lee Dickey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: create (or modify) date
Message-ID: <2058@cwruecmp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Apr-87 21:47:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: cwruecmp.2058
Posted: Wed Apr 22 21:47:26 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Apr-87 06:46:45 EDT
References: <387@sbcs.UUCP> <1935@ihuxy.ATT.COM> <859@viper.UUCP> <478@orville.UUCP>
Reply-To: dickey@cwruecmp.UUCP (Lee Dickey)
Organization: CWRU Dept. of Computer Engineering, Cleveland, Ohio
Lines: 32

In article <478@orville.UUCP> bob@wiley.UUCP (Bob Amstadt) writes:
>In article <859@viper.UUCP> john@viper.UUCP (John Stanley) writes:
>
>>     One important thing I'd like to see -all- shell writers do is to get
>>   the old date and time properly transfered to the new file.  It's not
>>   very complicated (takes about 5 lines of C) and makes the copy function
>>   -much- more useful...  (Ever try using MAKE in a system where copying
>>   your files flakes out the date and time info?  It doesn't work...!   :(
>
>I disagree. It is very important copy updates the date to the current date
>and time. Example: I make some changes to a file which later proves to be
>damaging or useless. I get back the original source from a backup. This
>constitutes a change and therefore should affect the last modified date.
>If you are using MAKE, then you shouldn't move your files (at least not
>very often).


John Stanley has the right idea here, for two reasons.

  (1)	Modifying the date means that information is lost,
	information that can not be reinstated by the user.

  (2)	Amstadt has another (easy) solution to *his* problem.
  	In doing a restore from a backup copy with the intention
  	of doing a MAKE, he is doing something quite specialized,
  	and even for himself, might find it useful to know when
  	a file was created in some other context.  The solution
  	to his problem is to simply "touch" the file.

I vote for keeping the preserving the create or modify date
when a file is copied.