Bugs item #3510490, was opened at 2012-03-23 05:20
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by bagder
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Category: documentation
Group: wrong content
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Accepted
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: MestreLion (mestrelion)
Assigned to: Daniel Stenberg (bagder)
Summary: -z/--time-cond does not mention mtime

Initial Comment:
In my system (Ubuntu 10.10, using curl 7.21.0), manual says:

       -z/--time-cond <date expression>
              (HTTP/FTP) Request a file that has been modified later than the given time and date, or one that has been modi‐
              fied before that time. The date expression can be all sorts of date strings or if it doesn't match any internal
              ones, it tries to get the time from a given file name instead! See the curl_getdate(3) man pages for date
              expression details.

The wording "it tries to get the time from a given file name instead!" can lead users in thinking it tries to somehow parse the filename for a date expression (like news_2012_03_05.html). It never mentions that it actually reads the mtime of the file in filesystem.(which is great!)

So I suggest the following:

       -z/--time-cond <date expression>|<file>
              (HTTP/FTP) Request a file that has been modified later than the given time and date, or one that has been modi‐
              fied before that time. The <date expression> can be all sorts of date strings or if it doesn't match any internal
              ones, it is taken as a filename and tries to get the modified time (mtime) from <file> instead. See the
              curl_getdate(3) man pages for date expression details.

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Comment By: Daniel Stenberg (bagder)
Date: 2012-03-23 15:14

Message:
Thanks for the report, this problem is now fixed in the git repository.

To try it out, you either checkout/update your git clone:
http://curl.haxx.se/source.html

or you try tomorrow's daily snapshot: http://curl.haxx.se/snapshots/

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Comment By: MestreLion (mestrelion)
Date: 2012-03-23 06:47

Message:
The attached patch has a slightly different wording than the original
suggestion: "... it is taken as a filename and tries to get the
modification date (mtime) from <file> instead"

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You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=100976&aid=3510490&group_id=976
Received on 2012-03-23