Problems with timestamps

[dhylands]

If I use folder compare, and then double click on a file and merge across some changes and save the file, then the timestamp gets set to the current date and time (this is a good thing).

However, if I copy the entire file, rather than copying individual changes, then it keeps the timestamp of the original file.

I've started to evaluate using BC for managing source trees.

Let's say tree1 has a file hello.c and it has a timestamp of 10:00am. I compile an object file and it has a timestamp of 11:00am.

Now I come along and merge another source tree with my current source tree, and suppose that I decide I want the entire hello.c from the new tree, and it has a timestamp of 10:30am.

When it copies it, it winds up preserving the old timestamp of 10:30am. If then run make, it doesn't rebuild anything because it believes that the object file is newer than the source file.

I'd like to have an option where copying an entire file does the same thing as just copying a few lines - i.e. the timestamp of the destination gets updated to be the current time.

I know that there is a touch option, but I don't want to have to remember to touch the files. Other tools, like Araxis Merge do the right thing (at least for source code developers).

With this one change, I would definitely purchase a Windows and linux copy of BC. Without this change, the tool is less than useful. I've already wasted several hours tracking down problems which were caused by object files that didn't get recompiled.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks for contacting us. To confirm what you have found, BC3 does try to preserve the timestamp during a normal copy of a file, and as a workaround you would need to either use the Touch command or manually copy the entire file text from one side to the other. When you save a file the Last Modified timestamp is updated, but not when the entire file is copied.

We appreciate the detailed use case. I've added your notes to our Customer Wishlist to have this behavior as an option.