[DUG] determining file system

[Matt Comb]

Hi Phil.

I spent ages some years back trying to sort out something very similar.

I can't entirely remember the details, but Fat, Fat32 and NTFS store 
datetime information differently from each other.(Others may know the exact 
details). Primarily I believe the difference between these windows formats 
is whether or not the locale / regional settings are applied. From memory 
NTFS stores according to GMT while FAT systems store according to regional 
settings. For example, try looking at a files creation date and time, and 
then turn on daylight savings settings and watch the date and time change, 
so frustrating if you are trying to synchronise files as we were. Windows 
automatically alters the date/time and all of a sudden your date time is 
out.

There is a call to tell you the operating system of a volume, but there are 
some difficulties, for exmaple:

Machine 1 (FAT) accessing file on Machine 1 (FAT)
Machine 1 (FAT) accessing file on Machine 2 (NTFS)
Machine 2 (NTFS) accessing file on Machine 2 (NTFS)

could all produce different values.

If you want I can dig out some code for you that is supposed to strip off 
the locale information on those FAT volumes but the problem is when you 
access from Machine 1 to Machine 2, you don't know what locale information 
is being applied on the second machine. So you can never really cover all 
bases.

Depending on what you are attempting to do if you have control of all the 
files that go in there in the first place, you may want to consider 
embedding datetime information into the filename or some index database 
alongside it.

Other people might have some better solutions.

Matt.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Middlemiss" <phil at tumonz.co.nz>
To: "NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List" <delphi at ns3.123.co.nz>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: [DUG] determining file system


> Hmmm, not quite what I need. I'll keep looking. Cheers,
> Phil.
>
> Rohit Gupta wrote:
>
>>I seem to recall some api that would give you this info.  However, the 
>>nearest I can find is GetVolumeInformation.  I know there is something 
>>else, but I cant find it.  :-)
>>
>>Date sent:      Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:08:14 +1200
>>From:           Phil Middlemiss <phil at tumonz.co.nz>
>>Organization:   MTS Ltd
>>To:             NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List 
>><delphi at ns3.123.co.nz>
>>Subject:        [DUG] determining file system
>>Send reply to:  NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List 
>><delphi at ns3.123.co.nz>
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>>Part of our code depends on getting the file stamp of a particular file, 
>>however on systems that have that particular file served by something like 
>>Novell Netware, that timestamp can be something other than what was 
>>expected.
>>
>>Is there a way to determine the file/operating/network system (whatever is 
>>the correct one to check) of a given location?
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Phil.
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>>Regards
>>
>>Rohit
>>
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