I have set up FreeFileSync and NetDrive together to mirror a network share (source) to an FTP site but everytime I run a comparison the dates in the network share (source) cause all the files to be uploaded to the FTP again.
I think the normal behaviour would be for the source files' date to be set to the date when the file was transfered? Or the destination files' date set to the date on the source but this is not happening for me. The remote files get the date when they were last uploaded and the source files remain with their original date thus making them different everytime.
Is there a way to ignore the dates and just rely on name and size? I don't need more than that for this task and content comparison actually needs to download and compare the files byte by byte doesn't it? It's terrible for bandwidth.
Thank you for your application. I have been looking for something like it for years!
Dates not updating / Ignore dates
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I've just tested and can confirm the behavior: Usually if files are copied the target file receives the source file's last modification timestamp. In this case, when copying files to an FTP drive, this is not done, but the modification time is set to current time. The same happens if files are simply copied with windows explorer. This is clearly a violation of the default file handling and I'd consider this as a bug. But I'm not sure who's to blame here, NetDrive or Win32 API.
Now to your workaround: Yes it's possible to ignore timestamps and rely on the filesize only. One needs to edit GlobalSettings.xml and set the XML node <FileTimeTolerance>, which determines a border for files to be considered having same time, to a sufficiently large value. However this won't help you too much because "same date, different size" is considered as a conflict and you'll have to resolve it manually (If that's okay, you're fine). In FreeFileSync v2.3 there'll be an option to automatically assign a default direction for conflicts. Then your usecase will be covered.
> download and compare the files byte by byte doesn't it? It's terrible for bandwidth.
That's true, unless you have way too much free time, this option is out.
-Zenju
Now to your workaround: Yes it's possible to ignore timestamps and rely on the filesize only. One needs to edit GlobalSettings.xml and set the XML node <FileTimeTolerance>, which determines a border for files to be considered having same time, to a sufficiently large value. However this won't help you too much because "same date, different size" is considered as a conflict and you'll have to resolve it manually (If that's okay, you're fine). In FreeFileSync v2.3 there'll be an option to automatically assign a default direction for conflicts. Then your usecase will be covered.
> download and compare the files byte by byte doesn't it? It's terrible for bandwidth.
That's true, unless you have way too much free time, this option is out.
-Zenju
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 26 Aug 2009
Thank you Zenju, you're awesome
It almost, almost solved it for me but unfortunately the conflict issue did become a showstopper, so I'm looking forward for the next version. Any chances of it hitting soon?
By the way, I do think the dates issue is more of a NetDrive bug.
One more question: is there a global GlobalSettings.xml? or should I be using the no-install version for that?
It almost, almost solved it for me but unfortunately the conflict issue did become a showstopper, so I'm looking forward for the next version. Any chances of it hitting soon?
By the way, I do think the dates issue is more of a NetDrive bug.
One more question: is there a global GlobalSettings.xml? or should I be using the no-install version for that?
-
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7052
- Joined: 9 Dec 2007
> Any chances of it hitting soon?Thank you Zenju, you're awesome
It almost, almost solved it for me but unfortunately the conflict issue did become a showstopper, so I'm looking forward for the next version. Any chances of it hitting soon?
By the way, I do think the dates issue is more of a NetDrive bug.
One more question: is there a global GlobalSettings.xml? or should I be using the no-install version for that?antoniodlp
My current release cycle is about once per month, and I've a couple of cool new features for v2.3 so I'm quite eager to release it soon!
> By the way, I do think the dates issue is more of a NetDrive bug.
I did some further investigation. It seems most FTP drives don't allow changing a files (last modification) time stamp:
http://www.unix.com/answers-frequently-asked-questions/29458-ftp-files-but-keep-original-timestamp.html
> is there a global GlobalSettings.xml?
There is a GlobalSettings.xml in both portable and installer-based versions. For the latter you can find it in %APPDATA%\FreeFileSync. For v2.3 I'll make this setting (file time tolerance) local for each *.ffs_gui/ffs_batch file, as one surely doesn't want to change it globally.
-Zenju
