File time stamp don't get changed? Is this possible ?

[Pawan Sangal]

Dear Experts,

If I've opened a file (vi filename) and then written something in that, and then did a ":wq" with save and exit.

I think by doing this the file get updated with latest time stamp.

Is this possible to keep the file time stamp as it was eariler ? even If I am editing to the file today.

Is this possible, or just a silly question of mine?

Any help...please


Thanks-
Pawan

[cfajohnson]

Use the touch command to reset it.

[Pawan Sangal]

Use the touch command to reset it.

Thanks Chris...

Using touch will update the file with latest time stamp (I assume the file already exists). But, my concern was to keep the older time stamp as it is, even If I am updating/editing the file today. Is this possible ?

Thanks-
Pawan

[Lakshmipathi]

Thanks Chris...
Using touch will update the file with latest time stamp (I assume the file already exists).

Yes,if file already exists touch will update it's time stamp to reflect current time.
If file didn't exists already, then it will create an empty new file.

But, my concern was to keep the older time stamp as it is, even If I am updating/editing the file today. Is this possible ?

Linux already has noatime - It will not update the last accessed time.

The atime and noatime attribute

But i'm not heard about nomtime ..

[drl]

Hi.

The command touch can alter the time to a specific value:

-d, --date=STRING
parse STRING and use it instead of current time

-- excerpt from man touch

So, for example, if you were to capture the exiting mtime of a file, edit the file as you desire, then you could use touch to reset the mtime as originally existed.

The man and info pages are your friends ... cheers, drl