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33 votes for this article.

Popularity: 7.27 Rating: 4.79 out of 5

Sample Image - TimeStamp.gif

Introduction

Working with a team of programmers in different time zones can be fun, but it can also cause major problems when files from different time zones get mixed and matched. The latest update to a new version of a file may have a date earlier than someone elses old version, meaning it won't be recompiled, or, a new file may have a date later than others meaning DevStudio repeatedly wants to recompile everything.

The solution to this is:

Get everyone to set their computer to the same time. This may work for some, but can be extremely inconvenient to others, or
Re-stamp the time on your files before sending them off to your colleagues.

I chose the latter, which meant I had to come up with a way to restamp file times. Enter TimeStamp.

This is as basic a "Touch" program as you'll find. Just enter in the offset in days, hours and minutes (positive will push file times into the future, negative into the past), select your files, then hit "Go". Simple.

Each file selected (either a single file or a complete directory tree) has it's "Last Modified" time set to the current time plus the offset that you choose.

The program remembers the last offset you've set, the last 10 files and directories you've stamped, and it's last screen location.

Thanks to:

Chris Losinger - Drop Edit
Vladimir Kvashin, Girish Bharadwaj and Lars Klose - Directory picker class
Davide Calibro - Flat buttons

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Chris Maunder

Member

Chris is the Co-founder, Administrator, Architect, Chief Editor and Shameless Hack who wrote and runs The Code Project. He's been programming since 1988 while pretending to be, in various guises, an astrophysicist, mathematician, physicist, hydrologist, geomorphologist, defence intelligence researcher and then, when all that got a bit rough on the nerves, a web developer. He is a Microsoft Visual C++ MVP both globally and for Canada locally.

His programming experience includes C/C++, C#, SQL, MFC, ASP, ASP.NET, and far, far too much FORTRAN. He has worked on PocketPCs, AIX mainframes, Sun workstations, and a CRAY YMP C90 behemoth but finds notebooks take up less desk space.

He dodges, he weaves, and he never gets enough sleep. He is kind to small animals.

Chris was born and bred in Australia but splits his time between Toronto and Melbourne, depending on the weather. For relaxation he is into road cycling, snowboarding, rock climbing, and storm chasing.

Occupation:	Founder
Company:	The Code Project
Location:	Canada

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Use modified Timestamp for foto-file synchronization

jeroen van dael

3:12 12 Dec '06

Hi Chris,
thanks for your Timestamp source code (although I don't like the MFC in it). I had to combine a lot of foto's from two different digicam's and discovered that their timeline was corrupted as the two internal clocks of the camera's were out of sync. So I modified just one line in your Timestamp code to get the fs.m_mtime changed with the updown counter settings, set to the timelag between both clocks:

fs.m_mtime += CTimeSpan(m_nDays, m_nHours, m_nMins,0);

(see TimeStampDlg.cpp, line 443)

After that, your little program saved me a lot of work!

jeroen van dael, hilversum, the netherlands

Add 12 hours to *existing* time stamp?

rcblanchard

4:55 26 Dec '04

Y'know when you set the date/time in a digital camera and you're in a hurry and you think it's 12-hour time and it's really 24-hour time, so you set it 12 hours too early? Then you take a bunch of pics and they're all 12 hours early...

Timestamp is an exellent utility, but it can't set a time stamp relative to what it currently is. Does anyone know of a utility that will do this?

Much appreciated.

-Bob Blanchard

5.00/5 (1 vote)

Re: Add 12 hours to *existing* time stamp?

The Chrisman

9:02 27 Feb '06

Seems easy... like you could get pretty close by setting your time clock [just prior] to the time that you want to set them at... get the timestamp changer ready and click at the right moment as you sit watching the GUI clock. That should get you within a second or so. Chris:->
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Re: Add 12 hours to *existing* time stamp?

kwestman

7:31 11 Jul '06

That's not what he means I dont think. What we need is similar to what exifer http://bppdocs.camner.net/html/exifer_info.htm[^]can do with pictures, add a specific amount of time to each file date, so when you're done they don't end up at all the exact date, but rather an offset of time ahead or behind what they originally were.
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Re: Add 12 hours to *existing* time stamp?

Psinewave

16:53 20 Aug '06

Funny, I just ran into the same problem myself - accidentally set the date on my camera to am when I meant pm ... actually the "fix" is real easy ... change line 443 of TimeStampDlg.cpp to:

fs.m_mtime = fs.m_mtime + CTimeSpan(m_nDays,m_nHours,m_nMins,0);

For a bit of context, here's what mine looks like now:

void CTimeStampDlg::StampFile(LPCTSTR szFile)
{
TRACE1("File is \"%s\"\n", szFile);

CFileStatus fs;
if (CFile::GetStatus(szFile, fs))
{
fs.m_mtime = fs.m_mtime + CTimeSpan(m_nDays,m_nHours,m_nMins,0);
//fs.m_mtime = m_FileTime;
CFile::SetStatus(szFile, fs);
}
}

Works beautifully Smile

5.00/5 (1 vote)

change created date of file?

ngtrungthanh

3:12 14 Apr '04

Hi, I am looking for a method to change created date of file. Have you got an idea? Thank you. Nguyen Trung Thanh
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Re: change created date of file?

ifbn

19:05 31 Aug '04

////////////I am a beginner~~~

BOOL ChangeFileTime(CString &strFileName
,SYSTEMTIME &sNewCreateDate,SYSTEMTIME &sNewCreateTime
,SYSTEMTIME &sNewAccessDate,SYSTEMTIME &sNewAccessTime
,SYSTEMTIME &sNewWriteDate ,SYSTEMTIME &sNewWriteTime
,BOOL bChangeCreateDate,BOOL bChangeCreateTime
,BOOL bChangeAccessDate,BOOL bChangeAccessTime
,BOOL bChangeWriteDate ,BOOL bChangeWriteTime
)
{

HANDLE hFile;
SYSTEMTIME sCreate,sAccess,sWrite;
hFile = CreateFile(strFileName, GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_DELETE,NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);

//////////////源文件时间
GetFileTime(hFile,&fCreate,&fAccess,&fWrite);

FileTimeToLocalFileTime(&fCreate,&fCreate);
FileTimeToLocalFileTime(&fAccess,&fAccess);
FileTimeToLocalFileTime(&fWrite,&fWrite);

FileTimeToSystemTime(&fCreate,&sCreate);
FileTimeToSystemTime(&fAccess,&sAccess);
FileTimeToSystemTime(&fWrite,&sWrite);
///////////////////////////

if (bChangeCreateDate)
{
sCreate.wYear = sNewCreateDate.wYear;
sCreate.wMonth = sNewCreateDate.wMonth;
sCreate.wDay = sNewCreateDate.wDay;
sCreate.wDayOfWeek = sNewCreateDate.wDayOfWeek;
}
if (bChangeCreateTime)
{
sCreate.wHour = sNewCreateTime.wHour;
sCreate.wMinute = sNewCreateTime.wMinute;
sCreate.wSecond = sNewCreateTime.wSecond;
//sCreate.wMilliseconds = sNewCreateTime.wMilliseconds;
}

if (bChangeAccessDate)
{
sAccess.wYear = sNewAccessDate.wYear;
sAccess.wMonth = sNewAccessDate.wMonth;
sAccess.wDay = sNewAccessDate.wDay;
sAccess.wDayOfWeek = sNewAccessDate.wDayOfWeek;
}
if (bChangeAccessTime)
{
sAccess.wHour = sNewAccessTime.wHour;
sAccess.wMinute = sNewAccessTime.wMinute;
sAccess.wSecond = sNewAccessTime.wSecond;
//sAccess.wMilliseconds = sNewAccessTime.wMilliseconds;
}

if (bChangeWriteDate)
{
sWrite.wYear = sNewWriteDate.wYear;
sWrite.wMonth = sNewWriteDate.wMonth;
sWrite.wDay = sNewWriteDate.wDay;
sWrite.wDayOfWeek = sNewWriteDate.wDayOfWeek;
}

if (bChangeWriteTime)
{
sWrite.wHour = sNewWriteTime.wHour;
sWrite.wMinute = sNewWriteTime.wMinute;
sWrite.wSecond = sNewWriteTime.wSecond;
//sWrite.wMilliseconds = sNewWriteTime.wMilliseconds;
}

SystemTimeToFileTime(&sCreate, &fCreate);
SystemTimeToFileTime(&sAccess,&fAccess);
SystemTimeToFileTime(&sWrite,&fWrite);

LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fCreate,&fCreate);
LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fAccess,&fAccess);
LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fWrite,&fWrite);

BOOL bResult = SetFileTime(hFile
, (dwdateResult1 == GDT_VALID)?&fCreate:(dwtimeResult1 == GDT_VALID)?&fCreate:(LPFILETIME)NULL
, (dwdateResult2 == GDT_VALID)?&fAccess:(dwtimeResult2 == GDT_VALID)?&fAccess:(LPFILETIME)NULL
, (dwdateResult3 == GDT_VALID)?&fWrite:(dwtimeResult3 == GDT_VALID)?&fWrite:(LPFILETIME)NULL
);
//SetFileTime(hFile,&fCreate, &fAccess, &fWrite);

CloseHandle(hFile);

return bResult;
}

Re: change created date of file?

meouvn

17:42 8 Dec '05

void CTimeStampDlg::StampFile(LPCTSTR szFile)
{
    TRACE1("File is \"%s\"\n", szFile);

    /*CFileStatus fs;
    if (CFile::GetStatus(szFile, fs))
    {
        fs.m_mtime = m_FileTime;
        CFile::SetStatus(szFile, fs);
    }*/

	HANDLE hFile;
	FILETIME fCreate, fAccess, fWrite;
	SYSTEMTIME sCreate,sAccess,sWrite;
	
	m_FileTime.GetAsSystemTime(sCreate);
	m_FileTime.GetAsSystemTime(sAccess);
	m_FileTime.GetAsSystemTime(sWrite);

	SystemTimeToFileTime(&sCreate, &fCreate);
	SystemTimeToFileTime(&sAccess,&fAccess);
	SystemTimeToFileTime(&sWrite,&fWrite);

	LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fCreate,&fCreate);
	LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fAccess,&fAccess);
	LocalFileTimeToFileTime(&fWrite,&fWrite);

	hFile = CreateFile(szFile, GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_DELETE,NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
	BOOL bResult = SetFileTime(hFile,&fCreate, &fAccess, &fWrite);
	CloseHandle(hFile);

	//ChangeFileTime(szFile, m_FileTime.Get, m_FileTime, m_FileTime, m_FileTime, m_FileTime, m_FileTime, true, true, true, true, true, true);
}

above is what i did to change created date in StampFile function

--------------------------
ERP VN: www.erpvn.net

-- modified at 22:43 Thursday 8th December, 2005

timestamp

dazzavazza

4:09 27 Mar '03

Hi Guys, Do you know if the use of timestamp can be scripted and if so, can u script the use of a unc path to run timestamp against?? This will be for use for a directory and all the files and folders below it. And can the tool modify/touch read only files? Or do i have to run attrib prior to timestamp to get rid of the readonly bit of the files. Thanks Dazza
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directory's date/time

Peppe

0:06 12 Dec '02

Hi Chris, how can I change the directory's date/time (not the files inside it)? Bye. Giuseppe
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (1 vote)

Alas useful...

Pierre Couderc

7:54 3 Dec '02

But it shows the poorness of the design of the full time stamp system - that I think inherited from DOS... Timestamps on files should be GMT times, converted to local time only when the they need to be displayed. And your tool should be unnecessary... Alas, thank you for it! Pierre Couderc
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You can do this already with an excellent Shell Extension - PropertiesPlus 1.65

me101

13:50 2 Dec '02

Not sure if this has been mentioned before...

There is an excellent Shell Extension available for Win95/98/nt4/2k/xp, called "Properties Plus 1.65", available at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cool/kish/pplusmain.htm.

PropertiesPlus is a free add-on for your Windows Explorer.

It adds additional functionality to your right-click menu under the menu option PropertiesPlus.

Here you'll be able to modify file attributes, file extensions, and the time stamps of single files, multiple files, or files contained within the folders. Display the bytes allocated.

Give it a look, been using it for quite a long time, it's one of those system programs that I always install on a new system, it's just that handy!

Re: You can do this already with an excellent Shell Extension - PropertiesPlus 1.65

Philippe Lhoste

23:31 2 Dec '02

Well, while we are on the topic of favorite closed source freewares, for this purpose, I use Date/Time Shell Extension, that can be found at http://space.dolphin.free.fr/Windows/main.html
It has numerous options, can change Creation and Modified time/date, etc.

Check out also his Folder Size Shell Extension...

Well, if you look around, you can also find other freewares for this purpose. Now, Chris' approach is original because it uses a time offset, not an absolute one. And we get the source...

Philippe Lhoste (Paris -- France)
Professional programmer and amateur artist
http://jove.prohosting.com/~philho/

Re: You can do this already with an excellent Shell Extension - PropertiesPlus 1.65

kajjo

14:00 3 Aug '03

Gurus, Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a programmer. I was doing a search to find the tools available to change the timestamp on a file/folder..... My question is, "Is it possible to tell if a file has had its timestamp tampered, perhaps by using one of the available utilities?" This question is asked from a security point of view. thanks Kirk
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Oh man

Jörgen Sigvardsson

15:05 27 Nov '02

I didn't see this article until after I submitted my own article.

At least my article (http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/touch_win.asp[^]) is a command line tool, so there is at least some difference.

But it really feels like going to a party, to find out you've dressed just like someone else at that party. Can I go home now? Red faced

--
If I had the ability to smooth talk like John Simmons, this post would be less sarcastic and more to the point.

Re: Oh man

Chris Maunder

7:17 28 Nov '02

How embarrassing cheers, Chris Maunder
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A different use of this tool

Anonymously

7:45 27 Nov '02

If your users reported a problem in your server program to your manager, you can fixed it quickly (as quickly as Chris Maunder ) and redeploy it after setting the timestamp to that of the previous version. Then you can say to your manager "Problem? What problem?"
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Re: A different use of this tool

rahtrow

3:34 29 May '03

shhhhhhhh
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Damn fast

Paul Ingles

6:10 27 Nov '02

Ok, so the challenge is now to put it into a Shell Extension -- Paul "If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation." - David Brent, from "The Office" MS Messenger: paul@oobaloo.co.uk Sonork: 100.22446
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Re: Damn fast

Paul Watson

6:23 27 Nov '02

Paul Ingles wrote:
Ok, so the challenge is now to put it into a Shell Extension

You know in Windows Media Player you can select a bunch of songs, right click and click Edit. Then whatever you type gets entered into the selected field for all of the files. Very handy that (Explorer has it too, but only for the Filename field.)

Nice to have that for the Date field Big Grin

Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa

Colin Davies wrote:
...can you imagine a John Simmons stalker !

Re: Damn fast

Thomas Freudenberg

7:09 27 Nov '02

You may try Michael Dunn's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Shell Extensions - Part V[^].

It's surprising how many goodies can be found at CodeProject Wink

Regards
Thomas

Sonork id: 100.10453 Thömmi

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Re: Damn fast

Paul Ingles

7:15 27 Nov '02

I had spotted that actually, I was going thinking about modifying Chris' code to a shell extension and went straight to Mike's articles. Anyway, I'm still going to give it a go -- I've not done any ATL programming for an extremely long time.

--
Paul
"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
- David Brent, from "The Office"

MS Messenger: paul@oobaloo.co.uk
Sonork: 100.22446

Re: Damn fast - minor update

Paul Ingles

0:59 29 Nov '02

I've converted the (very) basic functionality of touch into a shell extension. It's extremely simple at the moment, so it doesn't warrant a CodeProject article -- effectively just calls a Win32 API function to set the file's time to now.

Anyway, I've put up the source code on my website, along with a Windows Installer package.

http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/Touch/Touch_src.zip[^]
http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/Touch/TouchSetup.msi[^]

When you right click on a file or selection of files, a new option will appear.

I've got to get on with some proper University work now (shouldn't have done this really Big Grin

), but I'll try and get around to implementing the same functionality as Chris' utility when I get a chance.

--
Paul
"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
- David Brent, from "The Office"

MS Messenger: paul@oobaloo.co.uk
Sonork: 100.22446

Re: Damn fast - minor update - Version 2 (ish)

Paul Ingles

8:27 29 Dec '02

I've updated the code to include a dialog that allows you to change both the Modified and Created Date/Times:

Screenshot: http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/Touch/v2/Touch_v2.png
VS.NET Project: http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/Touch/v2/Touch_v2_src.zip
Installer: http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/Touch/v2/TouchSetup.msi

Once again, it's pretty bare at the moment and the code is pretty messy to say the least -- I was trying to get something functioning before I cleaned it all up.

If you use it it'd be great to hear from you.

--
Paul
"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
- David Brent, from "The Office"

MS Messenger: paul@oobaloo.co.uk
Sonork: 100.22446

Helpful for timebomb sharewares

.S.Rod.

5:58 27 Nov '02

Thanks.
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