Applescript for matching two files creation date

You can change the creation date of a file backwards by using the unix touch command to change the modification date (the system won't allow a file to have a modification date that's earlier than its creation date). the basic procedure you'd use would be to take a pair of related files, extract the creation date from the first and and touch the second with that date.

You didn't specify how the two lists of files are related, so it's hard to determine what the best way of pairing related files is. But assuming they are just stored in the file system in an arbitrary order you'd need to loop through the originals folder and search for the associated revised file for each file. That would look like this (where originalFilesFolder and revisedFilesFolder are POSIX paths to the folders where the original and revised files live):

tell application "System Events"

set originalFilePaths to POSIX path of (every file of folder originalFilesFolder whose name extension is "MPG1")

end tell

repeat with theOriginalFile in originalFilePaths

tell application "System Events"

-- get creation date of original file

set originalFileCreationDate to creation date of filetheOriginalFile

-- strip off mpg1 extension

set strippedFileName to text 1 through -5 of (name of theOriginalFile)

-- get associated mov file

set theRevisedFile to item 1 of (POSIX path of (every file of folder revisedFilesFolder whose name is (strippedFileName & "mov")))

end tell

-- reformat the creation date into a time slug for the unix touch command

set originalDateString to short date string of originalFileCreationDate & space & time string of originalFileCreationDate

set revisedDateStr to (do shell script " date -j -f \"%D %I:%M:%S %p\" " & quoted form of originalDateString & " \"+%Y%m%d%H%M.%S\"")

-- use touch to reset the modification date (which forces the creation date to change as well)

do shell script "touch -t " & revisedDateStr & space & quoted form of theRevisedFile

end repeat

twtwtw wrote:

You can change the creation date of a file backwards by using the unix touch command to change the modification date (the system won't allow a file to have a modification date that's earlier than its creation date).

You can also change the creation date of a file backwards as follows:

set theFile to POSIX file "/POSIX/path/to/a/file"

tell application "Finder"

set temporary to modification date of file theFile

set modification date of file theFile to date "January 24, 1984"

set modification date of file theFile to temporary

end tell

Hi,

Fierabras wrote:

Thank you for your response.

I have an error here:

ferror "No puede obtenerse name of \"/Users/fhuet/Desktop/Folder1/IMG_0299.MPG1\"." number -1728 from name of "/Users/fhuet/Desktop/Folder1/IMG_0299.MPG1"

Because theOriginalFile variable is a posix path, use ---> (name of file theOriginalFile)

Here is a script that use another method, try it:

--------------------------------------

set mpg1Folder to quoted form of POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Select folder wich contains .mpg1 files")

set movFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Select folder wich contains .mov files")

do shell script "cd " & mpg1Folder & " && for f in *.MPG1;do /usr/bin/perl -e 'utime($ARGV[0], $ARGV[0], \"$ARGV[1]\")' $(/usr/bin/stat -f %B \"$f\") " & movFolder & "/\"${f%.MPG1}.mov\"; done"

As Jacques says, a POSIX path is just a text string, so you have to tell system events that it's a file by adding the file keyword. i.e.:

(nameof filetheOriginalFile)

if you want to use the offset method, make sure you take the offset of the reversed string; otherwise if there's another dot in the name (e.g. 'file.name.something.MPG1') you'll get the wrong result. use

reverse of (characters of (name of file theOriginalFile)) as text

since it's always going to be extension MPG1, though, it's probably less trouble just to clip off the last 4 characters.

Keep in mind that Jacques and Pierre (Yeeee... I may be too American for this thread) are just giving you alternate approaches to the same thing: Jacques is giving a unix approach and Pierre is going for more pure applescript. Use whatever makes most sense to you.

set originalDateString to short date string of originalFileCreationDate & space & time string of originalFileCreationDate

set revisedDateStr to (do shell script " date -j -f \"%D %I:%M:%S %p\" " & quoted form of originalDateString & " \"+%Y%m%d%H%M.%S\"")

No, no, no.

'short date string' returns a localized version of the date - that is, something that's typical for your current country/language settings. You can not predict or rely on what that format might be. In some cases it might be MM:DD:YY, but other countries might use DD:MM:YY, while others use DD/MM/YYYY.

Likewise with the time string - That string might be in 12 or 24-hour format, based on local settings.

Although it's more work, it would be better to extract the specific date/time elements and format in the order you want. It avoids ambiguity.

tell originalFileCreationDate

set myY to year

set myM to text -2 through end of ("0" & (its month as integer))

set myD to text -2 through end of ("0" & day)

set myHr to text -2 through end of ("0" & (its time) div 3600)

set myMin to text -2 through end of ("0" & (its time) mod 3600 div 60)

set mySec to text -2 through end of ("0" & (its time) mod 60 as text)

end tell

set revisedDateStr to myY & myM & myD & myHr & myMin & "." & mySec as text

My two cents…

In the very special case where “the file names on both folders are the same and the number of files in the two folders are the same”, the following script should do exactly what you are asking for:

set folder1 to POSIX file "/POSIX/path/to/MPG1/folder"

set folder2 to POSIX file "/POSIX/path/to/MOV/folder"

tell application "Finder"

set folder1 to folderfolder1

set folder2 to folderfolder2

set N to (count folder1)

if not (count folder2) = N then return

set creationDates to creation date of files of folder1

set modificationDates to modification date of files of folder1

repeat with k from 1 to N

my changeDates(filek of folder2, itemk of creationDates, itemk of modificationDates)

end repeat

end tell

on changeDates(theFile, theCreationDate, theModificationDate)

tell application "Finder"

set modification date of theFile to theCreationDate

set modification date of theFile to theModificationDate

end tell

end changeDates

Camelot wrote:

set originalDateString to short date string of originalFileCreationDate & space & time string of originalFileCreationDate

set revisedDateStr to (do shell script " date -j -f \"%D %I:%M:%S %p\" " & quoted form of originalDateString & " \"+%Y%m%d%H%M.%S\"")

No, no, no.

The ironic thing about this, Camelot, is that I cribbed that routine from one of your own posts on this thread. that'll teach me to be lazy. 😝😉

Wow, did I really say that? and only 18 months ago, too?

I guess I was looking for a quick and dirty solution. Oh well. 🙂

well, you've just proved that it happens to the best of us. 🙂

Ah, System Events is sometimes picky about resolving references. this works:

set strippedFileName to text 1 through -4 of (get name of file theOriginalFile)

the added get forces it to get the actual string filename rather than a reference to it.

My pleasure.