Settings file times only

[Matthias Schniedermeyer]

On 11.04.2012 11:14, James Moe wrote:
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> 
> Hello,
>   I restored a filesystem by using rsync to copy directories and files
> from a backup volume to the newly recreated volume. All of the
> re-created files were given the current date and time rather than the
> original file's timestamp. I am sure there was a way to prevent that
> from happening.
>   Is there a way to use rsync to set the timestamps of the
> destination's file (and directories) to the source's timestamps? I do
> not wish to copy any files. All that needs to match is the filename,
> new or deleted files are ignored.

I think the easiest thing to do is a little shell-magic.

I'll assume local storage

A shell-script:
- /tmp/touch.sh -
#!/bin/bash

BACKUP_DIR='<backup_dir>'

if [ -s $BACKUP_DIR/"$1" ]
then
  touch -r $BACKUP_DIR/"$1" "$1"
fi
- snip -

The from the root of your target-directory
find * -type f -exec /tmp/touch.sh {} \;

This calls the script for each file found in the target directory and 
sets the mtime for each file that is also in the backup-directory.

The Script is untested.

Depending on how many files there are it may take some time, as this is 
basically a fork-bomb.





Bis denn

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