random date/time stamp changes

[BillT]

It *seems* that BC4/Mac occasionally updates the timestamp on a file that has not been written, and/or uses the current time rather than the timestamp of the source when updating a file.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen or reported something similar, or if I should be investigating other possible reasons for this anomaly.

Thanks!

[Aaron]

Hello,

Unless you are transferring or using the Touch command, BC4 shouldn't be updating any timestamps on files just by viewing or loading them in a Folder Compare. Is it possible an external scan or indexing might be triggering and updating the Last Modified timestamp?

During a transfer, if the destination device does not support preserving the timestamp, it can be set to the time of the transfer. One key troubleshooting step here is to Refresh, Full Refresh, and verify in Finder, as sometimes it might be a Refresh bug (we aren't displaying the right timestamp) rather than an actual time of transfer timestamp. If you are able to reproduce this issue, could you test/verify if it's a refresh bug or if the timestamp is indeed a time of transfer? What type of device are you copying to, and is there a pattern to the type of files that it does not preserve the timestamp? If you retry the copy with just that file, does it then work?

[BillT]

Hi Aaron:

Thanks for getting back. I did verify that the problem is with the actual timestamp by going into Terminal, so it's not a refresh issue.

The problem seems to be related to copying to/from smb: shares that reside on Linux (e.g., via Samba), and/or afp: shares on Mac, so problem may be there.

Just wanted to check if this rang a bell, since it didn't come up when I searched the forum.

Will keep an eye out and see if I can repro and/or narrow down the problem on this end.

Regards,

Bill

[Aaron]

Thanks, Bill.

We haven't seen this specifically, but there are a few samba changes coming in the next release. Which version of OSX are you running as well?

[BillT]

Still on 10.8.3 - holding off on Mavericks till dust settles a bit.

BTW, just happened again, so I'm attaching a screenshot. I just copied the file at the bottom of the list to the left, and rather than using the source timestamp, it's using the current time.

I've verified the timestamp is actually on the file with Terminal and Finder (also attached).

In this case, the source file is an XP machine, with standard Windows file sharing, and mounted in Finder with standard smb:// url.

FWIW, I've also mounted my root filesystem on Mac with noatime (seemed like a good idea, although I forget how I set it up :-(

bash-3.2$ mount | grep " /"
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled, noatime)

[BillT]

Just got another -- this time the source is another Mac that is being accessed via afp:// url.

[Aaron]

Hi Bill,

Thanks. Could you retest with the latest beta release as well? And, if you attempt to recopy the file, does it continue to get the time of transfer as the timestamp, or does it work if repeated?

[BillT]

So far I haven't seen this issue with the new build, but I'll keep an eye out and post here if it recurs.

Thanks!