[cvsnt] Re: CVS not keeping file "modified" time stamp

[Tony Hoyle]

justin at postgresql.org wrote:
> The problem we're experiencing is that when a file is checked in (after 
> being updated), the file's timestamps are reset to the check in time 
> instead of preserving the timestamps actually on the file.

That's the way CVS works.. it uses timestamps to (initially) work out if 
a file has been changed.  If you commit an unmodified file (or do 
certain operations such as status) the timestamp will be reset to the 
timestamp of the version that's stored in the repository.

The only time that's recorded in the repository is the actual checkin 
time of the file, for logging purposes.

On update the timestamp is changed to the time of update, so that build 
scripts work correctly (although this can be overriden, it's not 
recommended as you can get subtle build failures if you do it).

> Does anyone know of a way where we can have CVSNT preserve the 
> timestamps on a file rather than reset them to the commit time?
> 
If your requirements are for storing that kind of information accurately 
then CVS is probably not what you should be using - timestamps are used 
by CVS itself as metadata, and it doesn't do anything special to 
preserve them.

Tony