Change file creation date

Question

Can I change creation date of some file using Python in Linux?

Same question for Windows: http://stackoverflow.com/q/4996405/321973 — Tobias Kienzler, Dec 15 '14 at 14:02

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '09 at 12:44

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Linux and Unix file system stores :

File access, change and modification time (remember UNIX or Linux never stores file creation time, this is favorite question asked in UNIX/Linux sys admin job interview)

Understanding UNIX / Linux file systems

answered May 20 '09 at 12:44

Ólafur Waage

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Note: there is `st_birthtime` on some Unix systems such as FreeBSD. – jfs Dec 23 '15 at 18:52
you can extract crtime from ext4 fs using [xstat function](http://moiseevigor.github.io/software/2015/01/30/get-file-creation-time-on-linux-with-ext4/) – jfs Nov 08 '17 at 12:24
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It's no longer true that Linux no longer supports creation time. See my answer below. – Gringo Suave Feb 14 '19 at 02:06
The thing is, while ext4 do [support](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4#Features) this *crtime* attribute, [AFAIU](https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/how-do-i-preserve-crtime-creation-birth-time-when-copying-from-windows-ntfs-to-linux-ext4-4175625229/#post5829217) that's not supposed to hold the same meaning than in other (or just Windows?) file systems. It's a specific property of the inode, not the contents itself. And I think for this reason there isn't any API to change or set it (which was actually what OP had asked). – mirh Feb 06 '20 at 15:37

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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You can use os.utime to change access and modify time but not the creation date.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered May 20 '09 at 12:15

Nadia Alramli

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>Set the access and modified times But i need creating date. – Max Frai May 20 '09 at 12:16
Quote from the docs on that function: "Set the access and modified times of the file specified by path." .. so you can't use it to set the creation date. – Epcylon May 20 '09 at 12:20
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It would be nice to add that there the concept of file creation date does not exist in most native *nix filesystems. – tzot May 21 '09 at 08:58

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 05 '15 at 07:45

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Check out os.utime

os.utime(file_path,(new_atime,new_mtime))

edited Oct 05 '15 at 07:45

Nazik

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answered Oct 05 '15 at 07:25

dahoiv

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it doesn't change *creation* time as [@Nadia Alramli's answer explicitly says](http://stackoverflow.com/a/887564/4279). – jfs Dec 23 '15 at 18:53

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 14 '19 at 02:14

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It's no longer true that Linux doesn't support creation time. See:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/470134/how-do-i-find-the-creation-time-of-a-file

Note this specific answer to view C-code that displays the field:

https://askubuntu.com/a/980750/116108

If the author of that post can help I might be able to create a wrapper with ctypes to modify it from Python.

answered Feb 14 '19 at 02:14

Gringo Suave

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did you ever created it? I would like to modify ctimes in Linux – churchill Mar 05 '22 at 21:58

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 20 '09 at 12:34

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I am not a UNIX expert, so maybe I'm wrong, but I think that UNIX (or Linux) don't store file creation time.

answered May 20 '09 at 12:34

Nick Dandoulakis

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Change file creation date

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