I'm doing some maintenance on my backup routines. I thought I'd search
\Program Files to find any recent files that have changed, such as INI
and CONFIG and LOG file etc, so that I could include these in my list
of backups.

Using the 'Specify Dates' box, I got what seemed a useful list of
folders and filenames. But on closer examination of the folders (in
the top part of the list) I found several that although their Date
Modified was 17/09/2008 they did *not* contain any files of that date.
I also found several files (in the lower part of the list) like
xyz.ini, for which there was no folder called xyz.
How can either of these things happen please? I assumed that, if a
file gets added or changed, both the file and the folder get the same
revised 'Date Modified.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Terry Pinnell <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in
news:40d1d45208kifrfk2f69j3q6ufv3mp7qnu@4ax.com:

> I'm doing some maintenance on my backup routines. I thought I'd search
> \Program Files to find any recent files that have changed, such as INI
> and CONFIG and LOG file etc, so that I could include these in my list
> of backups.
>
> Using the 'Specify Dates' box, I got what seemed a useful list of
> folders and filenames. But on closer examination of the folders (in
> the top part of the list) I found several that although their Date
> Modified was 17/09/2008 they did *not* contain any files of that date.
> I also found several files (in the lower part of the list) like
> xyz.ini, for which there was no folder called xyz.
> How can either of these things happen please? I assumed that, if a
> file gets added or changed, both the file and the folder get the same
> revised 'Date Modified.
>
Short answer: temporary files. Long answer: if a program needs to store
something temporarily so that another part can work on it, it writes that
information to a file. That program then exits and the next program reads
the file, deletes it when it's done with it. The end result is that no new
files are there, but the directory has been modified.


--
(setq (chuck nil) car(chuck) )

chuckcar <chuck@nil.car> wrote:

>Terry Pinnell <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in
>news:40d1d45208kifrfk2f69j3q6ufv3mp7qnu@4ax.com :
>
>> I'm doing some maintenance on my backup routines. I thought I'd search
>> \Program Files to find any recent files that have changed, such as INI
>> and CONFIG and LOG file etc, so that I could include these in my list
>> of backups.
>>
>> Using the 'Specify Dates' box, I got what seemed a useful list of
>> folders and filenames. But on closer examination of the folders (in
>> the top part of the list) I found several that although their Date
>> Modified was 17/09/2008 they did *not* contain any files of that date.
>> I also found several files (in the lower part of the list) like
>> xyz.ini, for which there was no folder called xyz.
>> How can either of these things happen please? I assumed that, if a
>> file gets added or changed, both the file and the folder get the same
>> revised 'Date Modified.
>>
>Short answer: temporary files. Long answer: if a program needs to store
>something temporarily so that another part can work on it, it writes that
>information to a file. That program then exits and the next program reads
>the file, deletes it when it's done with it. The end result is that no new
>files are there, but the directory has been modified.

Thanks chuckcar.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK