Copy a file and keep the same timestamp of the original file

Question

I need to a copy file and after that I need to change the timestamp attributes as the original file. How can I do it with the terminal or any other way?

Solution

You can preserve the timestamp of the original file when copying using cp by adding the -p or --preserve option:

   -p     same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

   --preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
          preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,time‐
          stamps), if  possible  additional  attributes:  context,  links,
          xattr, all

So to preserve only the timestamp

cp --preserve=timestamps oldfile newfile

or to preserve mode and ownership as well

cp --preserve oldfile newfile

or

cp -p oldfile newfile

Additional options are available for recursive copying - a common one is cp -a (cp --archive) which additionally preserves symbolic links.

Comments

[bonh]

Surprisingly, this did not work on macOS when copying from a FAT32 partition to an exFAT partition.

[FlexMcMurphy]

I think this should be the accepted answer. It solves the problem with one command which I think is what the OP was really after. It is also well explained.

[WinEunuuchs2Unix]

Unfortunately timestamps aren't exactly the same. Eg source stat: Modify: 2020-08-31 14:32:41.481210326 -0600 after cp --preserve=timestamps target stat: Modify: 2020-08-31 14:32:41.000000000 -0600. You can see nanoseconds are different which is a bug in cp I guess.