Frequent Question: How Do You Modify a File Without Changing the Timestamp in Unix?
Contents If You Want Change the Contents of Files Without Changing Its Timestamps, There Is No Direct Way to Do It. but It Is Possible! We Can Use One of the...
If you want change the contents of files without changing its timestamps, there is no direct way to do it. But it is possible! We can use one of the touch command’s option -r (reference) to preserve file timestamps after editing or modifying it.
How can I edit a file without changing the timestamp?
The option -r (or –reference) uses file’s time instead of current time. You can use stat to check the timestamps of both files. Now edit the main file and make desired changes. Then use the touch command to touch the main file with timestamp of tmp file.
Must Read
How do you modify the timestamp of a file in Unix?
5 Linux Touch Command Examples (How to Change File Timestamp)
- Create an Empty File using touch. …
- Change File’s Access Time using -a. …
- Change File’s Modification Time using -m. …
- Explicitly Setting Access and Modification time using -t and -d. …
- Copy the Time-stamp from Another File using -r.
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