Hello-
I would like to propose my idea and request comments, here's the problem:
I need to compare the timestamp ( date modified attribute ) of each file in one directory to the timestamp of its corresponding sibling file in another directory. Since the filenames are dissimilar, I can't easily code a search using regexp, I guess I'll just have to handcode a mapping of the file relationship in another text file that I will have to read in. So, I'm thinking once I have the one-to-one relationship read in and a two file objects declared with their timestamp attributes, in a loop 'll just have to compare the timestamps, and if they're not the same, pipe a message out to another text file naming the file whose timestamp did not match. This will need to run on Windows ( server, preferably ) so, barring a better alternative, I guess I'll use C#. So how do I get the value for timestamp into file.timestamp property? I will be using VS 2005 to code, unless I would be better off with a categorically different approach

I had you all the way up until you said put the timestamp into file.timestamp property. Are you looking to modify file timestamps? Like if they are not the same, to then synchronize them by modifying a file timestamp? You had the right idea right up until that part about modifying the timestamp. Can you clarify?

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Martyr2: 10 Dec, 2007 - 10:54 AM

Sorry, I tend to be a little wordy naturally, but left out the important part: I'm comparing the timestamps on files between two directories, directoryA is the original file, directoryB has clones of the directoryA files which are "backups". Timestamps on the directoryA files will always be very close to or newer than timestamps on the corresponding directoryB files ( unless they weren't manually backed up, which ultimately becomes my job ). The purpose of the application is to determine which of the directoryB ( backup ) file timestamps are significantly earlier than the timestamps on the corresponding directoryA file. When I say timestamp, I'm presuming a string value which I'll parse into a .timestamp property to compare month/day/year. I wouldn't want to modify the timestamps with this application, just compare.

This can be used to find the last time a file was written to.
public static DateTime GetLastWriteTime ( string path )

Why can't the backup's have the same name as the original files, if they are in different directories? It seems like that would make it easier.

This post has been edited by ericode: 16 Dec, 2007 - 06:49 PM