[TriLUG] Moving a subdirectory tree

[Tom Bryan]

Actually, both commands below preserve timestamps for files and directories.  
Neither one seems to preserve the timestamps for symlinks, and I can't get 
touch to operate on the symlink.  When I touch the symlink with an explicit 
time, it updates the target of the link.  For example, 

$ ll
total 0
-rw-rw-r--    1 tbryan   tbryan          0 Feb  3 20:21 bg
lrwxrwxrwx    1 tbryan   tbryan          2 Feb  3 20:12 bg_BG -> bg
$ touch -r /usr/share/scrollkeeper/Templates/bg_BG bg_BG
$ ll
total 0
-rw-rw-r--    1 tbryan   tbryan          0 Jan  1 12:23 bg
lrwxrwxrwx    1 tbryan   tbryan          2 Feb  3 20:12 bg_BG -> bg

Is there a way to update a symlink's access and modification times?

---Tom

On Sunday 03 February 2002 07:38 pm, Mike Broome wrote:
> "cp -a" worked for me recently.  (-a is shorthand for -dpR.  It's the -p
> that preserves the timestamps.)
>
> Mike
>
> On Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 10:21:16AM +0500, Tom Bryan wrote:

> > database happy (not complaining about file permissions and dates).  I
> > mounted the new filesystem to /mnt and ran
> >
> > cd /mnt;  tar cf - -C /usr/share . | tar xpf - 2> tar.stderr
> >
> > but that doesn't preserve timestamps.  Is there a better way to move
> > files from one partition to another?