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Duke Nukem

Member

Registered: 2018-11-07

Posts: 86  

File Dates in Dolphin

Why is it that Dolphin does not show the true file Modified, Created and Accessed times and dates? This is a screenshot of a directory in Dolphin with files that were created and last accessed more than ten years ago except when copied from PC to PC during that time and also in the last few days (8th Nov). They mostly show a date of 29 July 2025 which is probably when I last moved them between disks or between partitions.

I'm setting up an archive script at the moment based on tar and IDK how tar will be able to distinguish that a file has been updated if these date stamps are incorrect.

I started on CP/M and seem to remember that it got dates right. Surely Linux should manage it or am I missing something?

blackhole

Member

Registered: 2020-03-16

Posts: 291  

Re: File Dates in Dolphin

Dolphin is only displaying file system metadata, much like you would see with:

$ ls -l

cp(1), tar(1) and rsync(1) all support arguments to preserve those attributes.

Duke Nukem

Member

Registered: 2018-11-07

Posts: 86  

Re: File Dates in Dolphin

OK, I see from man cp below (for example) that I need the -p argument to preserve time stamps. Strange that it also gives the long forms --preserve and --no-preserve without saying which is the default. I would have expected preserve to be the default. I suppose I will create an alias for cp -p, and maybe call it cpe (copy enhanced).

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

       --preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
              preserve the specified attributes

       --no-preserve=ATTR_LIST
              don't preserve the specified attributes

Last edited by Duke Nukem (Yesterday 00:33:11)

User479

Member

From: Central USA

Registered: 2021-11-07

Posts: 38  

Re: File Dates in Dolphin

Consider using -a with cp and rsync.