Copy File dates on macOS

copy_dates.sh

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# Usage: copy_dates.sh source_file dest_file
# Requires: Xcode Command Line Tools (for SetFile)

set -euo pipefail

if (( $# != 2 )); then
  echo "Usage: $0 source_file dest_file" >&2
  exit 1
fi

src=$1
dst=$2

if [[ ! -e $src ]]; then
  echo "Source does not exist: $src" >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [[ ! -e $dst ]]; then
  echo "Destination does not exist: $dst" >&2
  exit 1
fi

# 1) Copy access & modification times (simple and reliable)
touch -r "$src" "$dst"

# 2) Get source creation time (seconds since epoch)
c_epoch=$(stat -f '%B' "$src")

# 3) Format for SetFile: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS
c_str=$(date -r "$c_epoch" '+%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S')

# 4) Apply creation time to destination
SetFile -d "$c_str" "$dst"

# Optional: also force modification time to match exactly
m_epoch=$(stat -f '%m' "$src")
m_str=$(date -r "$m_epoch" '+%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S')
SetFile -m "$m_str" "$dst"