If your entire tree is done with this tar mechanism, then the backup process should work fine.

xoxo,
Andy

%_=split/;/,".;;n;u;e;ot;t;her;c; ".   #   Andy Lester
'Perl ;@; a;a;j;m;er;y;t;p;n;d;s;o;'.  #   http://petdance.com
"hack";print map delete$_{$_},split//,q<   andy@petdance.com   >

The timestamp is not the problem. The timestamp on the tar will naturally work just as well, anyway, without having to reset it. The problem is with the filename. If it is not 1-to-1, then it will have to open the file to check the original file name, to be sure it has the right one.

—John

So give the tar the one-way crypted version of the real filename. As in, roughly:

my $timestamp = timestamp_of( $innerfile );
my $tarname = crypt( $innerfile, $innerfile ) . ".tar";
$tarname = substr( $tarname, 2 );
system( 'tar $tarname cvf $innerfile' );
touch( $tar, $timestamp );
[download]

The crypted filename will always be the same thing. So foo.txt will always create the same .tar file.

Also, you'll want to drop the first 2 chars of the crypted filename, because they are the salt, which in this case is the first two letters of the inner filename.

xoxo,
Andy

%_=split/;/,".;;n;u;e;ot;t;her;c; ".   #   Andy Lester
'Perl ;@; a;a;j;m;er;y;t;p;n;d;s;o;'.  #   http://petdance.com
"hack";print map delete$_{$_},split//,q<   andy@petdance.com   >