How can I set the last modified time of a file from python?

Question

I have a python script that downloads a file over FTP using ftplib.

My current download code looks just like the example in the ftp lib docs:

ftp.retrbinary('RETR README', open('README', 'wb').write)

Now I have a requirement that the file downloaded over FTP needs to have the same last modified time as the file on the FTP server itself. Assuming I could parse out the time from ftp.retrlines('list'), how can I set the modified time on the downloaded file?

I'm on a unix based OS if that matters.

Answer 1

Use os.utime:

import os

os.utime(path_to_file, (access_time, modification_time))

More elaborate example: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/os_utime.htm

Answer 2

There are 2 ways to do this. One is the os.utime example which is required if you are setting the timestamp on a file that has no reference stats.

However, if you are copying the files with shutil.copy() you have a reference file. Then if you want the permission bits, last access time, last modification time, and flags also copied, you can use shutil.copystat() immediately after the shutil.copy().

And then there is shutil.copy2 which is intended to do both at once...