IDEA: Zipdate Utility for long file names?

[atkinsod]

Back in the 90's there was a utility called Zipdate that allowed you to specify a ZIP file or a directory, and it would modify the date attribute of the ZIP files to correspond to the newest file contained in the ZIP.

That is, you might have a ZIP file named Tools.zip, with a "modified" timestamp of 07/14/2009. However, the latest tool in the zip file might be dated 03/12/2004. You would prefer the ZIP date to match the 2004 date, so that at a quick glance you know how "old" the files contained in the zip are.

I've done a quick search here and on the Net, and even downloaded a new version of the PKZIP utilities and haven't found this capability. The Zipdate util from SIMTEL only seems to handle short file names...

Does anyone know if any of the newer archive utilities provides this function, or could such a thing be coded easily?

Thanks!

Doug A.

[lanux128]

there is a tool called ZipTouch which modifies the date and time of files inside the ZIP but it also looks capable of what you were looking for.

[atkinsod]

Thanks for the try - I couldn't get it to work for the automatic dating of the ZIP file to the date of the latest file in the Zip.

The instructions state it should be able to do what I wanted, but dragging a file to the "middle" area didn't do anything.

Ziptouch does it's main task okay: you can open a ZIP file, set a date through the calendar tool, and then "touch" all the files in the zip and/or the Zip archive itself with the selected date.

It doesn't seem to just tag the container file with the "newest" file date, however, at least not in my testing on an XP SP3 system.

Doug A.

[atkinsod]

Okay, I found one!

The old unzip command line from Info-Zip (www.info-zip.org) has a -T option that takes a wildcard and seems to work, at least in my limited test!

If there are any other tools, for example if any of the current archive tools (I use IZarch, for example) have this ability in a GUI, I'd still be interested in knowing. IZarch does not seem to have this, by the way.

Thanks again.

Doug A.

[skwire]

Are you happy with the command line method or did you want a small, custom GUI to handle this?

[atkinsod]

Skwire,

For the number of times I would use this, the command line approach is probably fine.

I guess this request should be moved to the "rejected" folder since an app already exists...

Thanks!

Doug A.

[skwire]

Fair enough.  =]

[Innuendo]

Here's a good news/bad news kind of thing...

The good news is I found a GUI app that does exactly what you want. The bad news is that it's not a compiled executable. Just the source code is provided. Maybe skwire can compile it up for you/us.

ZipDater

[lanux128]

the code is in VB, maybe scancode still has the VB IDE to compile this. provided someone get the author's permission as stated in the terms on the website.

Terms of Agreement:   
By using this code, you agree to the following terms...   
1) You may use this code in your own programs (and may compile it into a program and distribute it in compiled format for languages that allow it) freely and with no charge.   
2) You MAY NOT redistribute this code (for example to a web site) without written permission from the original author. Failure to do so is a violation of copyright laws.   
3) You may link to this code from another website, but ONLY if it is not wrapped in a frame.
4) You will abide by any additional copyright restrictions which the author may have placed in the code or code's description.