On 2017-06-06 11:30, Giuliano Colla wrote:
This is one of the down sides of GIT: it doesn't preserve timestamps.

You are the second person I hear say that. Why is preserving timestamps important? What use is there for it?

Git already tracks the commit date/time, authored date/time and other metadata - all available in the Git log. Those are git log metadata. But Git really only tracks file content changes over time - that is the important bit everybody needs. Git doesn't even track directories - only file content changes are tracked, but even with only that information, Git is clever enough to track file renames and movement of files between locations in the repository.

I honestly see no need for timestamps. If mean for things like a compiler should detect when files are changes - well, compilers should check for the content of file changes (via checksums or CRC etc). Timestamps can be spoofed or changed without the contents of the file changing - thus totally pointless. Then there is things like daylight savings time, timestamps across timezones etc. All things that could affect timestamps, but not the content of a file. So Git is right by not bothering with file timestamps - query the git-log instead.

Regards,
  Graeme

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