Copy files to NFS directory loose time stamps

[Paul Dickson]

If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?

Current options in fstab: defaults,owner,rw,user,auto,hard,intr,exec

-Paul

[Oldman]

Paul Dickson wrote:
> If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
>
> Current options in fstab: defaults,owner,rw,user,auto,hard,intr,exec
>
> -Paul

This is the way cp is supposed to work.  to preserve the time stamp 
see the man
page on cp and look for the option --preserve

Scott

[Paul Dickson]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 09:53:32 -0800, oldman wrote:
> Paul Dickson wrote:
> > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
> >
> > Current options in fstab: defaults,owner,rw,user,auto,hard,intr,exec
> This is the way cp is supposed to work.  to preserve the time stamp 
>
> see the man
> page on cp and look for the option --preserve

No, the man page says -a preserves timestamps, but it's not.

-Paul

[Oldman]

Paul Dickson wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 09:53:32 -0800, oldman wrote:
> > Paul Dickson wrote:
> > > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
> > >
> > > Current options in fstab: defaults,owner,rw,user,auto,hard,intr,exec
> >
> > This is the way cp is supposed to work.  to preserve the time stamp 
> > see the man
> > page on cp and look for the option --preserve
>
> No, the man page says -a preserves timestamps, but it's not.
>
> -Paul

Hmm.. looks like I could have read more closely that cp -a is the same 
as -dpR.  Did you try specifying the --preserve anyway?
I tested it locally and it behaves as expected.  Perhaps you could try 
rcp or scp?

Scott

[Jeff Vian]

On Sun, 2006-02-26 at 09:53 -0800, oldman wrote:
> Paul Dickson wrote:
> > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
> >
> > Current options in fstab: defaults,owner,rw,user,auto,hard,intr,exec
> >
> > -Paul
> This is the way cp is supposed to work.  to preserve the time stamp 
>
> see the man
> page on cp and look for the option --preserve

cp -a also preserves the time stamp.  The man page for cp says

-a, --archive
              same as -dpR

I would suspect this is related to nfs and not the cp command.
The mount options may have an affect, as well as needing to be 100%
certain the destination has proper permissions.
> Scott

[n0dalus]

On 2/26/06, Paul Dickson  wrote:
> If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?

Are you able to `touch` the files on the volume? (eg `touch -r file
/copy/of/file/on/nfs` ).

n0dalus.

[Paul Dickson]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:18:07 +1030, n0dalus wrote:
> On 2/26/06, Paul Dickson  wrote:
> > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
>
> Are you able to `touch` the files on the volume? (eg `touch -r file
> /copy/of/file/on/nfs` ).

"mv" has the same problem.

I can copy the timestamps with touch:  touch -r old <nfs>/new

-Paul

[Paul Dickson]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:08:10 -0700, Paul Dickson wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:18:07 +1030, n0dalus wrote:
> > On 2/26/06, Paul Dickson  wrote:
> > > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
> >
> > Are you able to `touch` the files on the volume? (eg `touch -r file
> > /copy/of/file/on/nfs` ).
>
> "mv" has the same problem.
>
> I can copy the timestamps with touch:  touch -r old <nfs>/new

I filed a bugreport:
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=183208

It includes an attachment of an ethereal dump of the network traffic.
The timestamp is transfered (mtime) and acknowledged.  Bother client and
server are running the same kernel version, 1977_FC5 (although server was
initially running 1955_FC5).

-Paul

[Paul Dickson]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:29:32 -0700, Paul Dickson wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:08:10 -0700, Paul Dickson wrote:
> > On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:18:07 +1030, n0dalus wrote:
> > > On 2/26/06, Paul Dickson  wrote:
> > > > If I do a "cp -a" to a NFS volume, the resulting files have the current
> > > > time stamp.  Do I need to change my mount options or is this a kernel bug?
> > >
> > > Are you able to `touch` the files on the volume? (eg `touch -r file
> > > /copy/of/file/on/nfs` ).
> >
> > "mv" has the same problem.
> >
> > I can copy the timestamps with touch:  touch -r old <nfs>/new
>
> I filed a bugreport:
>     https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=183208
>
> It includes an attachment of an ethereal dump of the network traffic.
> The timestamp is transfered (mtime) and acknowledged.  Bother client and
> server are running the same kernel version, 1977_FC5 (although server was
> initially running 1955_FC5).

Installing kernel-2.6.15-1.2008_FC5 on the client side resolves the
problem.  Thanks.

-Paul