fclones dedupe doesn't seem to preserve mtimes on Linux. Preserving mtimes seems like something that should be both possible and desirable, but please let me know if I missed something.
I tested this with btrfs on NixOS 21.11-pre.
# uname -a
Linux ra 5.10.76-hardened1 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Oct 27 07:56:57 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# fclones --version
fclones 0.17.0
# cp -a /etc/passwd ./
# touch --date 2009-01-01 passwd
# l
total 4,096
-rw-r--r-- 1 at at 3,891 2009-01-01 00:00 passwd
# cp -a passwd passwd.2
# l
total 8,192
-rw-r--r-- 1 at at 3,891 2009-01-01 00:00 passwd.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 at at 3,891 2009-01-01 00:00 passwd
# fclones group . | fclones dedupe
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.532] fclones: info: Started grouping
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.540] fclones: info: Scanned 3 file entries
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.540] fclones: info: Found 2 (7.8 KB) files matching selection criteria
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.540] fclones: info: Found 1 (3.9 KB) candidates after grouping by size
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.540] fclones: info: Found 1 (3.9 KB) candidates after grouping by paths and file identifiers
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.552] fclones: info: Found 1 (3.9 KB) candidates after grouping by prefix
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.552] fclones: info: Found 1 (3.9 KB) candidates after grouping by suffix
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.552] fclones: info: Found 1 (3.9 KB) redundant files
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.553] fclones: info: Started deduplicating
[2021-10-29 04:25:29.561] fclones: info: Processed 1 files and reclaimed up to 3.9 KB space
# l
total 8,192
-rw-r--r-- 1 at at 3,891 2009-01-01 00:00 passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 at at 3,891 2021-10-29 04:25 passwd.2
I also tested a user xattr and it did seem to be preserved.
fclones dedupe
doesn't seem to preserve mtimes on Linux. Preserving mtimes seems like something that should be both possible and desirable, but please let me know if I missed something.I tested this with btrfs on NixOS 21.11-pre.
I also tested a user xattr and it did seem to be preserved.