Deployment Utility updates .seq file dates

[Snood1]

When building a TestStand Deployment in TS 3.1, any .seq files listed in the .tsw file used for the deployment will have their modify-dates updated to the date at which the deployment was built.  This is not practical for my application, in which the dates of all files included in the TS deployment must maintain their orignial modify-dates.  Strangely, only .seq files seem affected.

[JonathanN]

Hi Snood1,

The TestStand Deployment Utility does update and resave sequence files and code modules under certain instances. Most cases where modifications are needed is when you are using LabVIEW code modules that need to be packaged or resaved or perhaps you are using absolute paths instead of relative ones.  The deployment utility will modify any sequence file or code module it needs to in order to be able to run on a target machine.  For more detailed information on what exacty goes on with deploying, refer to Chapter 14 of the TestStand Reference Manual and the KnowledgeBase Deploying TestStand Systems. 

Hope this clears things up!

Best Regards,

[Snood1]

Thanks for the info.  The Deployment Utility places a copy of your source files (.seq, .c, etc.) in <image dir>/target/ and the copy of the .seq file in that location will have its path name in the header updated to the <image dir>/target directory.  So the file date will always be updated no matter what.  I really need a way to preserve the file date, otherwise I won't be able to use the Deployment Utility.  The reason for this is that a CRC is performed on .seq files prior to running a test procedure and it looks for the file date information in a text file.  This text file will contain the file date of the file from its source directory.  When the system is deployed on the target PC, the .seq file date will be from the <image dir>/target directory and the CRC will fail.

[JonathanN]

Dear Snood1,

Anytime the Deployment Utility changes those files, Windows by default will change that Date Modified property for that individual file. Having the CRC dependent upon that property isn't the best method to use. If you absolutely need this unmodified date, you will need to determine the best method to store the date before you run the utility and then re-apply this information after the deployment utility has executed. You could use LabVIEW or some ADE to access this property via the Windows SDK.

Hope this helps!

Best Regards,