Preserving last modification time over FTP?

[elecpic]

Hi, I wonder how I can preserve file timestamps when copying/sync files over
FTP?
I'm currently using NetDrive to perform FTP synchronization with FreeFileSync.

I found this info in another post, but the case seems to be different over FTP
:

> when it comes to file times, FreeFileSync behaves just like Windows
Explorer:

- Create time is set to current time
- Modification time is taken from source file
- Last access time is set to current time.

Regards, Zenju



However, when using FTP, the modification time is set to current time.
It could be very useful to preserve file timestamp information over FTP. Do
you plan to add this as a new feature in the file copy routine?

The FFS Help suggest to workaround this problem by using "Compare by file
size", but I doubt this will work as if the timestamp were preserved.

> Compare by filesize

Sometimes you might want to compare both sides by filesize only, ignoring last
modification timestamps.

Instructions:

Open your *.ffs_gui configuration file and change the value of XML node
<FileTimeTolerance> to some sufficiently large number of seconds. Changed
files will now be detected as a conflict (same date, different filesize) and
the default synchronization direction for conflics can be used.



I would like to try this workaround but I didn't find the <FileTimeTolerance>
node in my *.ffs_gui file. I could had it but where in the file?

[Zenju]

> I found this info in another post
This quote is quite outdated. The current procedure is to copy
Create/Modification/Last access time from source files to target files.

> when using FTP, the modification time is set to current time.
This is a restriction of some FTP servers, namely that they don't support file
modification times. Other FTP servers do support modification times, so it
depends on which one you are using.

> but I didn't find the <FileTimeTolerance> node
This setting has been moved to GlobalSettings.xml located in
%appdata%\FreeFileSync or FFS's installation folder (when using portable mode)

[elecpic]

> > when using FTP, the modification time is set to current time. This is a
restriction of some FTP servers



Does this strictly depends on the FTP server configuration or it could be a
alternate transfer command sent by the FTP client?

I have no control of the FTP server I sync my files to. So maybe I could find
a FTP client that could tell the server to preserve timestamps. What will be
difficult is to find one that support virtual FTP drives like NetDrive does.

[elecpic]

I found this... The info is useful, but the software is not free.

> WebDrive FTP ClientSet files modified time after upload to preserve
date/time: When enabled, WebDrive will set the files modified time on the
server to match the original file date/time, instead of using the upload time
(for servers that support this feature).


Maybe I will try it to first know if the FTP server I connect to supports this
feature.

[Zenju]

FreeFileSync supports SFTP directly as of version 7.2 which also handles setting of modification times.