Modify the file. The date of creation

General JUCE discussion
1

Hi,
I’m trying to modify file like this:

  1. xml->writeTo(file, {});
    or like this
  2. file.replaceWithText(xml.release()->toString());

Both options update the date of creation of this file.

Are there any ways how to update the content of the file without changing the date of creation?

Thanks

2

If your write operations mess with the date of creation, couldn’t you just change it back afterwards?

something like

auto realCreationTime = file.getCreationTime();

// do your write to file operations here

file.setCreationTime(realCreationTime);
3 Likes
3

I don’t why, but this method didn’t change creation date too

4

But in general, how it can work?

setCreationTime method looks like this:

bool File::setCreationTime (Time t) const { return setFileTimesInternal (0, 0, t.toMilliseconds()); }

Inside setFileTimesInternal we see:

if ((modificationTime != 0 || accessTime != 0) && juce_stat (fullPath, info))

But in the previous method, we set modificationTime and accessTime to 0

So it’s always false;

5

Interesting… I don’t know. I’m sure someone more experienced with file management in Juce will know the answer :slightly_smiling_face:

6

You can create a FileOutputStream for the target file using File::createOutputStream(), and write the data using FileOutputStream::write(). This will preserve the metadata, but is quite a bit more annoying and error-prone than using methods like replaceWithText().

You’re correct about the logic in File::setCreationTime(). It looks like this isn’t an issue on Windows, as its setFileTimesInternal() implementation doesn’t perform the (modificationTime != 0 || accessTime != 0) check. But for other systems that use the POSIX implementation, setCreationTime() will always fail due to this check.

2 Likes
7

Thank you. Will try.

Any comments from JUCE team about these methods?