Re: First timer: Finder Copy vs. cp
Re: First timer: Finder Copy vs. cp
- Subject: Re: First timer: Finder Copy vs. cp
- From: Michael Smith <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 02:36:13 -0700
On Aug 10, 2006, at 7:19 PM, Dan Shoop wrote:
This is the first time I've heard anything about someone wanting
the create time copied;
:incredulous look:
I'll guess ahead of time that you're a unix-head w/o prior exposure
to MacOS or many other OSen that possess creation dates. ;)
Speaking as the instigator and one of the architects of copyfile as
well as portions of the current metadata handling architecture, and
as a participant in over a year's worth of debates on such subjects
during the work, I'd like to make a simple point on the subject here:
The 'copy' operation makes a new file which contains the same data
as the original.
In particular, note that this is a new file; it is semantically
incorrect (regardless of your expectations otherwise) to mis-label
the file as having been instantiated at any time other than when it
was. It is not a re-instantiation of a previously existing file (as
would be the case on restoring from a backup) or a cross-filesystem
move of a currently-existing file (where one typically wants to
preserve the single-namespace fiction).
I appreciate that you have your expectations, and that some tools may
mis-handle the creation date as a sop to software that likewise has
deficient expectations, but it is not valid to argue for the
destruction of this metadata on a 'correctness' basis.
= Mike
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