Time resolution on stored files?

Randolph S. Kahle RandyKahle at KahleAssociates.com
Thu Jun 22 14:33:00 GMT 2000


I am using a Samba server not only for file sharing but also as a location 
for backup copies of Windows based files.

I have tried using xcopy and a product call InSync from Dillobits software 
and I think both are running into the same problem.

The problem is that these tools do not think that the time stamp on the 
file stored on Samba is the same as the time stamp stored on Window (in my 
case Windows 2000).

I have been working with the product support people for InSync and this is 
the explanation they gave to me after examining a debug trace from their 
product:

------------
When InSync copies a file to a target directory it explicitly sets
the last modified time stamp of the target file to be the same as
that of the source file. Due to implementation differences between
various Microsoft OSs we allow up to 2 seconds of difference between
last modified timestamps before we consider them different and
initiate a copy. This is because some of these OSs only maintain the
stamp with 2 second accuracy. We do not know Samba implementation
details but the timestamps in the logs you provided differ by up to
4.5 seconds. This is enough to trigger a copy.
-----------

Has anyone else run into this problem? What is the solution?

Regards,

Randy Kahle



More information about the samba mailing list