Does anyone know of a software that can record file modification times?

[kartal]

Hi

I am looking for an application for (win or lin) that can record file modification times for a given folder recursively? I just want to be able to see when the files have changed within given period of time.

It can be a console app, gui app etc it does not matter as long as it can efficiently watch and record mod times per file.


thanks

[MikeMcLoughlin]

Touch by Funduc Software will do that.

www.funduc.com

Cheers
Mike

[kartal]

MikeMcLoughlin

Actually that is not what I am looking for. That just changes the file times like the Linux touch command


What I am looking for is an app that records (literally) the file modification times and keeps some sort of database about the files. No I wont keep a record of windows system, this is just for project purposes.

[MikeMcLoughlin]

Sorry kartal, I completely misread what you were asking!

http://www.diskboss.com/disk_change_monitor.html may do what you want, but isn't free.

Mike

[Target]

how many files, and how often do they change?

is this something that could be polled hourly or every xx minutes?

[Edvard]

how many files, and how often do they change?

is this something that could be polled hourly or every xx minutes?

That would be my question as well, because it sounds like it'd make a great coding snack. 

[4wd]

File Watcher Utilities - (Windows, Linux, MacOS)

Run as GUI, Console, and Windows Service.

Description

File system/directory monitoring utilities with loggin and task processing support (can execute files or make a WCF service call). Multiple configuration options. Source code libraries can be used to create a custom file system monitor.

Does anyone know of a software that can record file modification times? Does anyone know of a software that can record file modification times?

Sample output with just default logging options:

Code: Text [Select]

1. [4/12/2013 7:44:15 PM] [Info] Application started.
2. [12/4/2013 7:45:49 PM] [Info] Daemon 'Watch K' is starting.
3. [12/4/2013 7:45:49 PM] [Info] Daemon 'Watch K' is started.
4. [12/4/2013 7:45:56 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp'.
5. [12/4/2013 7:45:59 PM] [Info] File or folder created 'K:\fwatcher.xml'.
6. [12/4/2013 7:45:59 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\fwatcher.xml'.
7. [12/4/2013 7:46:01 PM] [Info] File or folder created 'K:\temp\fwatcher.xml'.
8. [12/4/2013 7:46:01 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp'.
9. [12/4/2013 7:46:01 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\fwatcher.xml'.
10. [12/4/2013 7:46:06 PM] [Info] File or folder created 'K:\temp\WPDNSE\fwatcher.log'.
11. [12/4/2013 7:46:06 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\WPDNSE'.
12. [12/4/2013 7:46:06 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\WPDNSE\fwatcher.log'.
13. [12/4/2013 7:46:22 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\fwatcher.xml'.
14. [12/4/2013 7:46:22 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\fwatcher.xml'.
15. [12/4/2013 7:46:22 PM] [Info] File or folder changed 'K:\temp\fwatcher.xml'.
16. [12/4/2013 7:47:57 PM] [Info] Daemon 'Watch K' is stopped.
17. [12/4/2013 7:47:58 PM] [Info] All processes have exited.
18. [12/4/2013 7:50:51 PM] [Info] Application stopped.

[widgewunner]

Wouldn't SysInternals Process Monitor do the trick? (It now includes the functionality of the legacy FILEMON and REGMON utilities.) It has extensive logging powers but possibly a steep learning curve.

[x16wda]

There are an awful lot of Windows utilities that do this general sort of thing, depending on your full set of requirements. Do you just need to know when something changed? Do you also need to know what changed? Or who changed it? Are you talking content, or file size, or time stamp on the file? Do you only need to know when it changed at some later time, or do you need to take some kind of action when the change occurs? Will there be a user logged into the computer (so you could use a foreground program) or do you need a service that can start when the computer boots? How often do you expect the changes to occur, could there be bunches at basically the same time?

FWIW, last time I went through the process of looking I didn't find the perfect utility.  I think the closest I came was called "The Folder Spy" which had a fairly primitive interface (and a green background!) but could take an action on detection of a change.  Looking just now I see there was an update to version 2 a few years ago, available here.  I had found some prettier utilities that could run as a service but they didn't seem to be as reliable.  I don't recall the one 4wd found, I ought to test that.

I appreciate the activity in this thread!

[Shades]

For this kind of purposes a CVS (content versioning system) would be ideal. It requires discipline to use but it can track which file(s) changed, but also by who, and depending on the file type even what.

SVN, Git, Mercurial and CVS have freely available server software and 3rd party client software (also free and/or open source) that make working with these servers very handy. SVN server with TortoiseSVN seem to fit the bill best.

Note that my advice comes from personal experience years ago and that I didn't keep up. I don't know if similar solutions exist for Git or Mercurial, as these are the most modern CVS systems out there. SVN and CVS are old (10+ years) and established names.

Once you do have and use the required discipline in storing files, you will wonder how you could have done any work without it.

[sajman99]

kartal, you may want to check out FingerPrint, a 2004 program released by 2BrightSparks.

A utility to see if any files in a directory have been created, deleted, or changed since the last scan. It's useful for checking if a program, e.g. viruses and trojans, has changed your system files (this is similar to such security software as Tripwire). The use of MD5 checksums guarantee detection of file changes. With it's integration with the Windows Task Scheduler, you can automate your scans, e.g. scan your Windows directory every night. FingerPrint can also be used to calculate MD5 values for files and directories, and compare the results, search for files having a particular MD5 value, and find duplicate files.

There are two FingerPrint programs: the normal Windows program and a console program (FingerPrintCL) that can be used from the command prompt to calculate MD5 and CRC32 values for files. See the FingerPrintCL section for information on using the console version.

I was able to find FingerPrint via this link.

[rjbull]

Maybe File and Folder Watcher, not free.

User Benefits

    Monitor an unlimited number of folders, including subfolders
    Run unlimited actions per folder watching event
    Monitor folders on local disks, network drives, or FTP locations
    Monitor changed, renamed, deleted and created events or any combination of these
    Filter by file attributes, creation time, directory name, file name or type, size etc
    Never lose a file or folder event regardless of the level of disk activity
    Copy, move, email, print actions, and custom actions via VBScript/JScript integration
    Fully recovers from network location downtime.