Trying to upload to Linkstation Live LS-CH using FTP and need to preserve file dates. In order to achieve this, my understanding is that MDTM must be supported by the Linkstation.
So far, while I've configured the option to preserve file dates on upload within WS_FTP Pro, all my uploads to the Linkstation wind up with changed file modified dates. Is MDTM supported? Is there any way to configure the Linkstation to respect the request to preserve file dates on uploaded files?
Thanks for your help...
J
Unfortunately not. The following is from the ProFTPD FAQ and explains why:
Question: Why is the timestamp on my newly uploaded file wrong?
Answer: If by "wrong" you mean "different from the timestamp of that file on my client machine", then that is the expected behavior.
The modification timestamp on a file is not part of the data uploaded over the data connection when uploading a file. Timestamps like that are metadata for that file, not part of the bytes of the file itself. FTP does not supporting sending of timestamps as part of the upload transfer process. See below for a common follow-up question.
Question: Does ProFTPD support changing the timestamp on a file using the MDTM command? That's what my client does.
Answer: No.
Why not? For several reasons:
* The MDTM command is not one of the commands mandated by RFC959.
* Some FTP clients use MDTM for retrieving the modification time, others try to use it to set the modification time, and still others do both.
* Among those FTP clients that do use MDTM, there is no consistent format of the timestamp used.
In short, it is a royal mess. ProFTPD supports MDTM for retrieving the modification time, in GMT. Period.