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user829468
Asked: 2018-05-28 05:17:32 +0800 CST

Copy a file and keep the same timestamp of the original file

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I need to a copy file and after that I need to change the timestamp attributes as the original file. How can I do it with the terminal or any other way?

files timestamp cp

2 Answers

  1. You can preserve the timestamp of the original file when copying using cp by adding the -p or --preserve option:

       -p     same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

   --preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
          preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,time‐
          stamps), if  possible  additional  attributes:  context,  links,
          xattr, all

    So to preserve only the timestamp

    cp --preserve=timestamps oldfile newfile

    or to preserve mode and ownership as well

    cp --preserve oldfile newfile

    or

    cp -p oldfile newfile

    Additional options are available for recursive copying - a common one is cp -a (cp --archive) which additionally preserves symbolic links.

    • 147
  2. Best Answer

    If you want to preserve the original timestamps, use 

    $ touch -r <original_file> <new_file>

    This copies the timestamps from another file.

    See this blog post for more: Fake File Access, Modify and Change TimeStamps

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