Re: comparing 2 file time date stamps

From the discussion, it seems that for some weird reason, you get different results in the mtime field of stat than you expect.

How are you building your expectation of what is correct?

The following program should output the correct mtime for each file, which should be identical with what the OS thinks, as verified via dir:

use strict;

for my $file (@ARGV) {
    print "Checking '$file'\n";
    if( -f $file ) {
    
        system("dir $file");
        my $mtime= (stat($file))[9];
        print "Mtime: $mtime\n";
        print "As string: " . localtime($mtime);

    } else {
        print "File '$file' does not exist, skipping\n";
    };
};

__END__
Checking 'tmp.pl'
 Volume in Laufwerk Q: hat keine Bezeichnung.
 Volumeseriennummer: 5A02-C2B6

 Verzeichnis von Q:\

06.11.2014  12:01               336 tmp.pl
               1 Datei(en),            336 Bytes
               0 Verzeichnis(se), 956.154.372.096 Bytes frei
Mtime: 1415271660
As string: Thu Nov  6 12:01:00 2014
[download]

Ideally, you should always find that the output of the timestamps as reported by dir are identical to the output of the timestamp as found via $mtime and output via localtime.

Comment on Re: comparing 2 file time date stamps Select or Download Code

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Re^2: comparing 2 file time date stamps by craigt (Acolyte) on Nov 06, 2014 at 14:18 UTC
Corion, Below is the code I ran. #!C:/PERL/bin/perl.exe -w use strict; my $file = 'c:/Steep/USA Data/State/KY/KY2.gif'; print "Checking '$file'\n"; if( -e $file ) { system "dir $file"; my $mtime= (stat($file))[9]; print "Mtime: $mtime\n"; print "As string: " . localtime($mtime); } else { print "File '$file' does not exist, skipping\n"; } $file = 'c:/usr/www/steepusa/stage/KY/KY2.gif'; print "\n\r\n\rChecking '$file'\n"; if( -e $file ) { system "dir $file"; my $mtime= (stat($file))[9]; print "Mtime: $mtime\n"; print "As string: " . localtime($mtime); } else { print "File '$file' does not exist, skipping\n"; } [download] The output follows. Checking 'c:/Steep/USA Data/State/KY/KY2.gif' Parameter format not correct - "Steep" Mtime: 1415235120 As string: Wed Nov 5 19:52:00 2014 Checking 'c:/usr/www/steepusa/stage/KY/KY2.gif' Invalid switch - "usr" Mtime: 1415235120 As string: Wed Nov 5 19:52:00 2014 The system command doesn't seem to like the file name as I've formed it.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: comparing 2 file time date stamps by Corion (Patriarch) on Nov 06, 2014 at 14:26 UTC
Ah - if you specify the path names with backslashes instead of forward slashes, the Windows built-in tools will understand them from the command line: `my $file = "c:\\Steep\\USA Data\\State\\KY\\KY2.gif";` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: comparing 2 file time date stamps by craigt (Acolyte) on Nov 06, 2014 at 16:28 UTC
It still barks at the space in the USA Data. I've tried several suggestions, as this is pretty common apparently, to no avail.	[reply]
Re^5: comparing 2 file time date stamps by Corion (Patriarch) on Nov 06, 2014 at 16:34 UTC
Re^6: comparing 2 file time date stamps by craigt (Acolyte) on Nov 06, 2014 at 16:47 UTC
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