order the list by deeper file date modification

[Michael REMY]

hi,

i don't know whevener it is a bug or a personal behavior or a missing feature, but i prefer to tell you.

i have a bunch of folders contening files (music files).
When i update a file inside a folder, then the date of the file is changing so i can order my files by update date with TC. right.

but, the parent folder date is not changed, then when i go up and order my folder by date, i don't see the newer-updated folder in good position.

Does TC can solve this situation ?

[MVV]

TC itself can only sort dirs by their dates. However it is possible to use a plugin that will return deeper file date so you can sort dirs by this column. I don't know if someone had written such plugin though. Anyway it will be very slow to recursively enumerate every contents in order to retrieve such field.

There is another approach: you can fix folder dates according to their newest files' dates.
FixDate tool from this post (save as text and decode) may help here. Also you will need batch from this post in order to fix dates recursively. Batch is designed to be dragged to TC buttonbar and may fix dates for all selected dirs in a panel (and of course for all nested dirs because it changes their dates at first).
Benefit of such approach is that you need to enumerate files in your dirs only once and then simply sort by fixed modification dates (if you change some files you will need to fix dates again).

[sqa_wizard]

To set the folder date to the newest file within folder and its subfolders just use SetFolderDate tool with TC.

[MarcinW]

On FAT filesystems, changes inside folder don't update the folder timestamp.

On NTFS filesystems, creating or deleting a file inside a folder updates the folder timestamp, but editing a file doesn't update the folder timestamp.

Total Commander doesn't modify this system behavior.

[Michael REMY]

On NTFS filesystems, creating or deleting a file inside a folder updates the folder timestamp, but editing a file doesn't update the folder timestamp

any idea why microsoft choose that way ?
under linux it is not that way ! folder date change once a file is edited !

[MVV]

Does linux change folder dates recursively up to the root?

[Dalai]

Does linux change folder dates recursively up to the root?

No, it doesn't, at least on ext3 (don't know about other FS). Ext3 changes timestamps of a directory as soon as a file inside it was changed, deleted or created, so it's almost identical to NTFS' behaviour.

Regards
Dalai

[Michael REMY]

hi,

i still encount the problem but in different way : i modify the IDtag of music mp3 file, then the file date change well. But the parent folder is not....
i have to rename my file to change the parent folder date...

does the 8.5x still have this issue ?

[ghisler(Author)]

This has nothing to do with Total Commander, the same happens in Explorer.

[Michael REMY]

i do understand.

but if windows can do all TC can do, i would had not choose it

i do understand it can make time to pre-read each file date before displaying the parent folder one.

But maybe it could be just an option and ONLY for the very end of the tree structure (so no problem for resources taken)

or at least a simple option (via button hit ) to read/fix on demand the folder date (better solution i think)

[solid]

As a workaround you can check nirsoft's folder_time_update

[Michael REMY]

As a workaround you can check nirsoft's folder_time_update

nicetool !

it would be lovely if it was a feature of TC ...like in the contextual menu by selecting a folder.....

[MVV]

Actually you can add any folder context menu items both in Windows and in TC internally.

Windows: regedit.exe, create e.g. key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\mycmd, set its default value to anything you like (it is a title of your item), add subkey command and set its default key value to e.g. notepad.exe "%1\2.txt" (it is a command of your item) and check folder context menu.

TC: Files - Internal Associations, Add, Define, create search template for folders (only enable directory attribute and don't touch anything else) and save it, then add an action e.g. mycmd (it is a title) for this filetype by clicking New button in edit file type dialog and set action command to e.g. notepad.exe "%1\1.txt". Confirm all changes, test folder context menu.

[Michael REMY]

Actually you can add any folder context menu items both in Windows and in TC internally.

Windows: regedit.exe, create e.g. key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\mycmd, set its default value to anything you like (it is a title of your item), add subkey command and set its default key value to e.g. notepad.exe "%1\2.txt" (it is a command of your item) and check folder context menu.

TC: Files - Internal Associations, Add, Define, create search template for folders (only enable directory attribute and don't touch anything else) and save it, then add an action e.g. mycmd (it is a title) for this filetype by clicking New button in edit file type dialog and set action command to e.g. notepad.exe "%1\1.txt". Confirm all changes, test folder context menu.

yep, but it require the program cares about the paramters %1 you give him