Copy directory while preserving modification time.

[Gulam Mohiuddin]

I have a directory /psoft which contain hundreds of files and subdirectories.

I would like to make a duplicate copy of this dir structure while preserving original modification times of all files and subdirectories underneath it.

I tried this command but didn’t preserve the mtime.
#cp –r /psoft /psoftold (changes the modification time)

Thanks,

Gulam

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

You could try using tar.

# cd /psoft
# tar -cf - . | (cd /psoftold ; tar -xf -)

In the first tar command it is 'tar-cf-.'

The second tar command is 'tar-xf-'.

[Bill Hassell]

The -p option (as mentioned in the man page) will preserve the modification time, access time, file mode, user ID, and group ID as allowed by permissions (to quote the man page). If the amount space is significant, you might want use cpio like this:

cd /psoft
find . | cpio -pudlmv /psoftold

This is the fastest way to copy lots of files. Note that both tar and cpio will not handle large files (files larger than 2Gb) so the cp command would be needed in that case. To see whether there may be largefiles in this directory, use this command:

fsadm /psoft

(this assumes that the /psoft directory is a VxFS filesystem).

[rariasn]

Hi Gulam,

Duplicate a directory hierarchy:

# cd olddir
# find . -depth -print | cpio -pdm newdir

More information: man cpio

rgs,

ran

[Arunkumar.B]

Hi Gulam,


use cp -p option it will preserve the Permissions & time stamp too...

You can also use tar&cpio but that limitation is u cannot take a copy of files more than 2 Gb

[Arunkumar.B]

Hi Gulam,


use cp -p option it will preserve the Permissions & time stamp too...

You can also use tar&cpio but that limitation is u cannot take a copy of files having size more than 2 Gb