On my own computer, I use a combination of file size, modification time, and ctime (creation on Windows, inode change time on Unix). Unless people are particularly trying to hide changes, that should suffice. And you can get all three using just one stat call.

In fact, on Unix, I have the impression that just checking ctime is enough, as any change to the file changes that timestamp, and it cannot be changed manually. Unfortunately, that's not the case on Windows.

In reply to Re: Best practices for file synchronization? (Mod time vs. contents compare) by bart
in thread Best practices for file synchronization? (Mod time vs. contents compare) by OfficeLinebacker

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