File Date/Time stamps

[AdrianS]

I hate to ask a fundamental question, but what date/time should the patched files get? Should user files patched by VP get the date/time of the source file or should they get the date/time that the user performs the patch.

The reason for the question is that my patched files seem to be randomly getting one or the other.

[Jason Pate]

The files that you are updating will be kinda random time/date stamp because there date depends on when they were created not when they were put into the patch.

[AdrianS]

>>The files that you are updating will be kinda random time/date stamp because there date depends on when they were created not when they were put into the patch.<<

Let me clarify. Sometimes the patched file gets the 'Modified' date/time of the source file and sometimes it gets the date/time that the patch exe is run. Different files in the same patch will behave differently. Some will get the source file time/date and some will get the patch execution time/date. I have always assumed that they should all get the source files' 'Modified' time/date.

[AdrianS]

OK, I figured out where the difference comes from. A regular patched file gets its Modified date/time set to the execution time of the patch. The file's creation date is unaffected. This is the behaviour that you would normally expect from Windows, since the patch is modifying the file.

Some of the files in my patch have enough changes that the diff size exceeds the compressed size of the file itself so VP (quite sensibly) puts the full file into the patch instead of the diffs. When that happens, the patched file gets the Modifed date/time of the source file and gets its Creation date/time set to the execution time of the patch. That's also not completely unexpected either.

I would argue that all the patched files should get consistent date/time stamps. My preference would be that the Modified date/time reflect the Modifed time of the source file.

[Jason Pate]

Depends on file type I would bet. I agree I would expect txt files and ini files to get patcher runtime date time modified, but EXE's DLL's would get the datetime from when they were complied.

[Jason Pate]

I see, but the Patch should not change the date of a file that is not modified,