Creation date is not kept when copying files and directories
Affected version
- Nightly flatpak: Yes
- Other: Linux Mint 20.1 (Cinnamon), elementary OS 5.1.7 and Fedora 33 (GNOME)
- nautilus 96b46687
Steps to reproduce
- Create a Live USB for Linux Mint 20.1, elementary OS 5.1.7 and Fedora 33 with rufus[1] on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. rufus uses FAT32 as file system for this Live USB by default.
[1]In this case I took the latest version 3.13 https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases
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Restart the computer or notebook and boot from Live USB.
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Install the Linux distribution on the computer or notebook - internal disks. By default, ext4 is used as the file system when installing these Linux distributions. Exception is Fedora 33 it uses as standard Btrfs.
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Install the nightly nautilus version via flatpak.
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Open the nightly nautilus version.
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Add "Created" to the column.
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Connect external disks to the computer or notebook. The external disks use these file systems: exFAT, ext4 and Btrfs
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Create on the computer or notebook - internal disks. A directory and file (.txt). Wait 1 minute and then copy to these external disks (exFAT, ext4 and Btrfs).
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After copying, view the directory and file on these external disks.
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The creation date was set to current time. It uses the same time as modified date.
Current behavior
Creation date is set to the current time when copying directory and files from internal disk to external disk.
Expected behavior
When directories and files are copied to external disks creation date must be kept as the source directory and file from internal disk.
The same is true when it is the other way around, i.e. directory and file from external disk to internal disk.
Additional information
My ex-girlfriend told me on her MacBook Pro (macOS 11 Big Sur) all timestamps are kept after copying directories and files to external disks (APFS and exFAT) for creation date, change date, access date and modified date. macOS 11 Big Sur uses by default for internal disk (APFS as file system).
It seems that UNIX operating systems do not have this problem anymore.