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windowszipgziparchivetar

pack files on windows and preserve folder timestamps

I want to put a big folder on Windows box into one archive (tar, zip, gzip, whatever). Is there a tool that can preserver all folder timestamps?

The timestamps have to be preserverd after unpacking the archive on a Linux box.

Any ideas are welcome!

Solution

  • tar will do fine. gzip is for single file compression, zip won't preserve directory timestamps.

    EDIT: Sample.

    tar jcpf backup.tbz2 thedir
rm -rf thedir
tar jxpf backup.tbz2

    Timestamps preserved.

    EDIT2:

    cygwin tar correctly preserves timestamps. Tested with tar jcf on cygwin, tar jxf on linux.

    EDIT3: WinRar preserves directory timestamps, linux unrar restores them properly.