How to discover a File's creation time with Java?

Question

Is there an easy way to discover a File\'s creation time with Java? The File class only has a method to get the \"last modified\" time. According to some resources I found

Answer 1

I've wrote a small test class some days ago, wish it can help you:

// Get/Set windows file CreationTime/LastWriteTime/LastAccessTime
// Test with jna-3.2.7
// [http://maclife.net/wiki/index.php?title=Java_get_and_set_windows_system_file_creation_time_via_JNA_(Java_Native_Access)][1]

import java.io.*;
import java.nio.*;
import java.util.Date;

// Java Native Access library: jna.dev.java.net
import com.sun.jna.*;
import com.sun.jna.ptr.*;
import com.sun.jna.win32.*;
import com.sun.jna.platform.win32.*;

public class WindowsFileTime
{
    public static final int GENERIC_READ = 0x80000000;
    //public static final int GENERIC_WRITE = 0x40000000;   // defined in com.sun.jna.platform.win32.WinNT
    public static final int GENERIC_EXECUTE = 0x20000000;
    public static final int GENERIC_ALL = 0x10000000;

    // defined in com.sun.jna.platform.win32.WinNT
    //public static final int CREATE_NEW = 1;
    //public static final int CREATE_ALWAYS = 2;
    //public static final int OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
    //public static final int OPEN_ALWAYS = 4;
    //public static final int TRUNCATE_EXISTING = 5;

    public interface MoreKernel32 extends Kernel32
    {
        static final MoreKernel32 instance = (MoreKernel32)Native.loadLibrary ("kernel32", MoreKernel32.class, W32APIOptions.DEFAULT_OPTIONS);
        boolean GetFileTime (WinNT.HANDLE hFile, WinBase.FILETIME lpCreationTime, WinBase.FILETIME lpLastAccessTime, WinBase.FILETIME lpLastWriteTime);
        boolean SetFileTime (WinNT.HANDLE hFile, final WinBase.FILETIME lpCreationTime, final WinBase.FILETIME lpLastAccessTime, final WinBase.FILETIME lpLastWriteTime);
    }

    static MoreKernel32 win32 = MoreKernel32.instance;
    //static Kernel32 _win32 = (Kernel32)win32;

    static WinBase.FILETIME _creationTime = new WinBase.FILETIME ();
    static WinBase.FILETIME _lastWriteTime = new WinBase.FILETIME ();
    static WinBase.FILETIME _lastAccessTime = new WinBase.FILETIME ();

    static boolean GetFileTime (String sFileName, Date creationTime, Date lastWriteTime, Date lastAccessTime)
    {
        WinNT.HANDLE hFile = OpenFile (sFileName, GENERIC_READ);    // may be WinNT.GENERIC_READ in future jna version.
        if (hFile == WinBase.INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) return false;

        boolean rc = win32.GetFileTime (hFile, _creationTime, _lastAccessTime, _lastWriteTime);
        if (rc)
        {
            if (creationTime != null) creationTime.setTime (_creationTime.toLong());
            if (lastAccessTime != null) lastAccessTime.setTime (_lastAccessTime.toLong());
            if (lastWriteTime != null) lastWriteTime.setTime (_lastWriteTime.toLong());
        }
        else
        {
            int iLastError = win32.GetLastError();
            System.out.print ("获取文件时间失败，错误码：" + iLastError + " " + GetWindowsSystemErrorMessage (iLastError));
        }
        win32.CloseHandle (hFile);
        return rc;
    }
    static boolean SetFileTime (String sFileName, final Date creationTime, final Date lastWriteTime, final Date lastAccessTime)
    {
        WinNT.HANDLE hFile = OpenFile (sFileName, WinNT.GENERIC_WRITE);
        if (hFile == WinBase.INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) return false;

        ConvertDateToFILETIME (creationTime, _creationTime);
        ConvertDateToFILETIME (lastWriteTime, _lastWriteTime);
        ConvertDateToFILETIME (lastAccessTime, _lastAccessTime);

        //System.out.println ("creationTime: " + creationTime);
        //System.out.println ("lastWriteTime: " + lastWriteTime);
        //System.out.println ("lastAccessTime: " + lastAccessTime);

        //System.out.println ("_creationTime: " + _creationTime);
        //System.out.println ("_lastWriteTime: " + _lastWriteTime);
        //System.out.println ("_lastAccessTime: " + _lastAccessTime);

        boolean rc = win32.SetFileTime (hFile, creationTime==null?null:_creationTime, lastAccessTime==null?null:_lastAccessTime, lastWriteTime==null?null:_lastWriteTime);
        if (! rc)
        {
            int iLastError = win32.GetLastError();
            System.out.print ("设置文件时间失败，错误码：" + iLastError + " " + GetWindowsSystemErrorMessage (iLastError));
        }
        win32.CloseHandle (hFile);
        return rc;
    }
    static void ConvertDateToFILETIME (Date date, WinBase.FILETIME ft)
    {
        if (ft != null)
        {
            long iFileTime = 0;
            if (date != null)
            {
                iFileTime = WinBase.FILETIME.dateToFileTime (date);
                ft.dwHighDateTime = (int)((iFileTime >> 32) & 0xFFFFFFFFL);
                ft.dwLowDateTime = (int)(iFileTime & 0xFFFFFFFFL);
            }
            else
            {
                ft.dwHighDateTime = 0;
                ft.dwLowDateTime = 0;
            }
        }
    }

    static WinNT.HANDLE OpenFile (String sFileName, int dwDesiredAccess)
    {
        WinNT.HANDLE hFile = win32.CreateFile (
            sFileName,
            dwDesiredAccess,
            0,
            null,
            WinNT.OPEN_EXISTING,
            0,
            null
            );
        if (hFile == WinBase.INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        {
            int iLastError = win32.GetLastError();
            System.out.print (" 打开文件失败，错误码：" + iLastError + " " + GetWindowsSystemErrorMessage (iLastError));
        }
        return hFile;
    }
    static String GetWindowsSystemErrorMessage (int iError)
    {
        char[] buf = new char[255];
        CharBuffer bb = CharBuffer.wrap (buf);
        //bb.clear ();
        //PointerByReference pMsgBuf = new PointerByReference ();
        int iChar = win32.FormatMessage (
                WinBase.FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM
                    //| WinBase.FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS
                    //|WinBase.FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER
                    ,
                null,
                iError,
                0x0804,
                bb, buf.length,
                //pMsgBuf, 0,
                null
            );
        //for (int i=0; i<iChar; i++)
        //{
        //  System.out.print (" ");
        //  System.out.print (String.format("%02X", buf[i]&0xFFFF));
        //}
        bb.limit (iChar);
        //System.out.print (bb);
        //System.out.print (pMsgBuf.getValue().getString(0));
        //win32.LocalFree (pMsgBuf.getValue());
        return bb.toString ();
    }

    public static void main (String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        if (args.length == 0)
        {
            System.out.println ("获取 Windows 的文件时间（创建时间、最后修改时间、最后访问时间）");
            System.out.println ("用法：");
            System.out.println ("   java -cp .;..;jna.jar;platform.jar WindowsFileTime [文件名1] [文件名2]...");
            return;
        }

        boolean rc;
        java.sql.Timestamp ct = new java.sql.Timestamp(0);
        java.sql.Timestamp wt = new java.sql.Timestamp(0);
        java.sql.Timestamp at = new java.sql.Timestamp(0);

        for (String sFileName : args)
        {
            System.out.println ("文件 " + sFileName);

            rc = GetFileTime (sFileName, ct, wt, at);
            if (rc)
            {
                System.out.println ("   创建时间：" + ct);
                System.out.println ("   修改时间：" + wt);
                System.out.println ("   访问时间：" + at);
            }
            else
            {
                //System.out.println ("GetFileTime 失败");
            }


            //wt.setTime (System.currentTimeMillis());
            wt = java.sql.Timestamp.valueOf("2010-07-23 00:00:00");
            rc = SetFileTime (sFileName, null, wt, null);
            if (rc)
            {
                System.out.println ("SetFileTime (最后修改时间) 成功");
            }
            else
            {
                //System.out.println ("SetFileTime 失败");
            }
        }
    }
}